High scoring chases is something that gets the crowd on their feet. A successful or a near successful chase of 190-200 is something most of the cricket fans hope to see more often in IPL. But, on this day three years back, the crowd at the MCA cricket stadium in Pune, then known as the Subrata Roy Sahara stadium, witnessed one of the most exciting low-scoring thrillers of the season.

It was a game that was labelled as the Maharashtra derby, as Mumbai Indians took on Pune Warriors for the second time in the 2012 IPL season. The last time those two sides had met, three weeks earlier, Pune Warriors had scored 129 and had managed to defend it with a lot of ease. The pitch in Pune had suggested another similar game, where Mumbai Indians, playing with three spinners, elected to bat first.

In a season where the visitors had tried a few combinations at the top, James Franklin and Sachin Tendulkar opened the batting. And as long as they batted, it seemed a fine track. Franklin’s 25 and Tendulkar’s 34, came at about run-a-ball, as the duo put on 50 runs for the opening wicket in 7.4 overs. But as the ball started to become older, timing it became difficult. The likes of Robin Peterson, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu all struggled to gain any momentum, and Mumbai Indians could manage just 10 fours and two sixes in their innings to finish at 120 for 9.

It was a slow track that was gripping a bit, still defending 120 would have taken a spectacular effort. Mumbai still had hopes with Harbhajan Singh and Pragyan Ojha in their side. It was important that the Pune Warriors didn’t run away with it in the Power-play overs, where the ball came on to the bat nicely. Malinga, Munaf Patel and Harbhajan ensured that; as the hosts got to 37 for 1 in six overs. Harbhajan kept Mumbai Indians on track by removing Jesse Ryder and Michale Clarke in his two consecutive overs. The pressure was on now, and the Pune Warriors were allowed to score just 12 runs off the next five overs (over Nos. 7 to 11). Mithun Manhas kept Pune’s hopes alive by hitting a four in each of the next three overs. The required run rate had gone up to eight now, with six overs to play.

Harbhajan finished an outstanding spell of spin bowling with figures of 4-0-18-2, as the required run-rate went up to nine. And it was a huge ask on this wicket, especially with Malinga bowling two of those five. As long as Manhas was there, Pune had hopes anyway. He had brought down the equation to 12 runs needed from the final over, to be bowled by Patel. And the tall pacer delivered, by not conceding a boundary in the first four balls. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar managed to find the boundary off the fifth, but a low full-toss did the job on the final delivery, as Mumbai Indians won by a single run to consolidate their third position in the points table.