Wow. Just Wow! That was one of the craziest games of cricket I have ever seen.

Backtrack. The Punjab Kings came to Mumbai looking to cement their place in the semi-finals against a Mumbai team that has been performing better and better and needed a win themselves to keep their hopes alive. Punjab’s two young Australians, Shaun Marsh and Luke Pomersbach, did a fine job for their team, putting on 133 for the second wicket and helping establish a very competitive target of 189.

Interviewed at the start of the Mumbai innings, Preity Zinta revealed that she lives in Mumbai and is a huge Tendulkar fan. She can’t have been too upset, therefore, when the Little Master set about providing a masterclass in batting to help his team stay in the match. Some big hitting by Jayasuriya and Dwayne Smith provided the acceleration around Tendulkar’s solid foundation. For most of the game to looked like Mumbai would make it. But when you have to score at almost 10 an over you can’t afford to falter, especially late on.

The turning point came when Irfan Pathan bowled a bouncer to Robin Uthappa, hitting the batsman on the front of his helmet. Uthappa was OK to continue, but his brains must have been shaken up because he played a couple of poor shots and then got Tendulkar run out. At this point, panic set in. The normally reliable Shaun Pollock played a silly shot and was out first ball, Uthappa holed out in the deep, and it was all down to the tail.

Some good bowling by the Kings meant that Mumbai needed 19 to win off the last over, but they were by no means panic free themselves. VRV Singh’s first ball was a beamer that was called No Ball and went for six. The next ball also went deep, was dropped on the boundary, and went for four. There was more panic. There were silly run-outs. And the game ended with Yuvraj, not trusting his throw, running in and diving headlong into the stumps to run out the last Mumbai batsman off the last ball of the game to give Punjab the win by just one run.

And what does all of this madness mean? Well, Punjab look pretty safe. They need just one point from 3 games to ensure a semi-final berth. With a home game against the Chargers to come, that’s almost a foregone conclusion. Chennai also look safe as they have games against the two bottom teams yet to play. The final spot will be between Delhi and Mumbai, and it may all be decided when they play each other in Delhi on Saturday.