Sports Thriller - Double Bill

I didn't mean to start a double bill series, oscar last week and sports this week, but the 2 classic games played on same day - 5/21/2008 deserves a double bill column. In the morning it was Punjab who sneaked a last ball one run win against Mumbai in the IPL league match. In the evening, thanks to ESPN's delayed relay, I was able to watch the UEFA champions league final that Man UTD won.

IPL Match #45 - Punjab Kings XI vs. Mumbai Indians

We often hear or read pundits saying "the defining moments" in cricket. Though Mumbai's defeat can be largely attributed to the way they choked at death, I thought the defining moment was the 17th over that Irfan Pathan bowled. Uthappa had just come to bat and Irfan served him a beautiful bouncer that hit Uthappa on his helmet. Uthappa tried to blast Pathan off the next ball and all he could do is to hit that straight to mid-wicket. At this point Uthappa was clearly rattled and probably was not thinking clearly that resulted in a needless, confusion laden run out of well set Tendulkar. Later, I thought Yuvraj almost blew the chance by bringing in off-color VRV Singh for the last over and in the end, it took a brilliant youtube moment to clinch the last ball thriller.

UEFA Champions League - Manchester United vs. Chelsea

The local sports broadcasting here in US is mostly dominated by NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. I was shocked to see the delayed relay of UEFA finals in the evening and I couldn't move an inch during the entire match. Man UTD dominated almost the entire first half and were leading 1-0, only to let Chelsea even the game at almost the last minute of the half. Chelsea clearly dominated the second half and I thought they were extremely unlucky to hit the goal bars on at least two occassions before the shoot outs. Watching penalty shoot out was extremely thrilling and the end must be heart breaking for Chelsea fans.

Truly an overwhelming day!