A consummate century from Sachin Tendulkar, impeccably timed to tick over to three figures on the last ball of his side's innings, was enough to force a victory for the Mumbai Indians against IPL fresh meat Kochi Tuskers Kerala.
Tendulkar's century, his first in the T20 IPL format, came from just 66 balls and was the major factor in propelling the home side to a daunting 182-2 at a packed out and fiercely partisan Wankhede Stadium.
Riding his luck, as one must in this heavily abbreviated form of the game, Tendulkar could have run out twice and was lucky not to be given out LBW on more than one occasion in the face of some lacklustre appealling from the Tuskers. If luck was on Tendulkar's side, so was the crowd, screaming in awe-struck idolatry throughout a classy innings from the little master; it was no wonder that the Kochi attack couldn't muster much of a shout against the wall of Tendulkar-inspired crowd noise.
Tendulkar's innings for Mumbai was all measured, wristy classicism, with sweet timing and placement bringing his boundaries. It is no mean feat to score such an elegant century in a T20 match, with each innings comprised of only 120 balls, but with this deified cricket, teetering on the edge of a staggering 100 international centuries, anything seems possible.
If Tendulkar stroked, chipped and caressed his way to a gorgeous century, then the Kochi run-chase - led by the indomitable hitting of New Zealand's Brendon McCullum -promised to be a more brutal affair.
Eventual man of the match McCullum, in partnership with quietly free-scoring Mahela Jayawardene, got his side's innings off to an incendiary start. McCullum can sometimes look scratchy at the crease, simply unable to get the ball away, but today he played exactly the sort of knock the Tuskers needed to chase down such a forbidding total.
Skipping down the wicket against the various talents of IPL purple cap holder (for being leading wicket taker) Lasith Malinga, Harbajan Singh, and young left-arm spin talent Ali Murtaza, McCullum exhibited his dazzling bat speed and explosive deep hitting on his way to a match winning 81 from 60 deliveries.
- Sc-oops! Unorthodox McCullum is bowled by Malinga
McCullum received exceptional support from his team-mates as Kochi worked to upstage Tendulkar's smooth century. Opening partner Jayawardene eased his way to 56 from 36 before falling to yet another Malinga yorker, and Brad Hodge hit crucial boundaries in the significant death throes of the match.
The glory of ushering in the closing credits fell to thrilling young Indian international Ravindra Jadeja who, promoted up the order, topped off an exhilarating 11 ball score of 25 with massive back-to-back sixes, served up in the form of knee-high full tosses from a nervy looking Murtaza.
It was always going to take something special to chase down such a big total, and to rally against a Tendulkar century in his home stadium, and Kochi produced just that to notch up their first ever win in IPL. With six balls to spare too.
