IPL: Harbhajan Singh's top 3 knocks

#1 49 off 18 balls vs Deccan Chargers – 2010 IPL

Deccan Chargers clashed with Mumbai Indians on March 28th at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai. Put into bat first, Mumbai Indians got off to a decent start but then lost wickets regularly with Sachin Tendulkar waging a lone battle at the other end. The Little Master got out in the 17th over for a well made 55. At this juncture, Mumbai were struggling at 7-120 with 3 overs left.

Harbhajan Singh then started off his innings with a bang by smashing Andrew Symonds for a four and a six of the fifth and sixth balls of the 18th over.

In the penultimate over of the innings, the Turbanator went berserk. West Indian fast bowler Kemar Roach was given the ball and he was greeted with a boundary off the very first ball of the over.

Off the 2nd ball of the over, Harbhajan smashed an overpitched delivery towards the deep square leg boundary for a huge six. A shattered Roach made amends with a dot ball on the 3rd delivery. But there was no respite for the West Indian as Harbhajan smashed 2 boundaries off the 4th and 5th deliveries. He raced away to 32 off 11 balls with an over to play.

Jaskaran Singh was given the final over and the inexperienced player was under severe pressure. He bowled 2 beamers, one of which went for a boundary, and was immediately removed from the bowling attack. Rohit Sharma was then tasked with completing the over. The off-spinner was taken to the cleaners by Harbhajan who smashed him for 3 consecutive boundaries. He followed it up with a single and got back the strike on the last ball of the innings. Batting on 49 off 17 balls and with a 50 in sight, he couldn’t connect on the last ball, thus missing out on a well deserved maiden half-century.

Harbhajan's breezy knock helped Mumbai Indians reach a formidable total of 172/7 in the 20 overs. He was then handed over the ball to bowl the first over of Deccan’s chase. And he delivered by picking up the prized wicket of Adam Gilchrist off the second ball of the innings.

Deccan never got going despite Rohit Sharma’s 45 off 28 balls. In the end, Deccan lost to Mumbai by 41 runs.

Harbhajan was awarded the Man of the Match for his 49 with the bat and 3 wickets with the ball.