Centurion, South Africa, Oct 27: Sydney Sixers scrambled through to the Champions League Twenty20 final with a single off the last ball to beat the Titans by two wickets on Friday and set up a tournament decider against the Lions.
Tailender Pat Cummins missed the final delivery but still made it to the non-striker's end for a desperate bye to drag Australia's Sixers to 164-8 and just past the Titans' 163-5.
Sydney prevented an all-South African final at Wanderers on Sunday but only after a topsy-turvy battle at the Titans' home ground of Supersport Park, where the Sixers twice let a dominant position slip before Cummins crawled home on his knees at the very end for the winning run in the second semifinal.
"We panicked a bit, I think, but we are going to the final," Sydney captain Brad Haddin said.
The Lions qualified for the final on Thursday when they successfully defended their 139-5 against Kevin Pietersen's Delhi Daredevils.
Delhi could only manage 117-9 in reply as the challenge of the last remaining IPL team ended in the first semifinal in Durban despite Pietersen's 50 from 44 balls.
The Lions have a chance at a first South African victory in the Champions League at their home stadium in Johannesburg, while Sydney can repeat Australia's success of 2009 when New South Wales Blues won the title.
Sydney had the Titans 82-5 in the 14th over on Friday night, but David Wiese bludgeoned 61 from 28 balls from No. 7 to give the home team a solid total in Centurion.
Sydney also dominated the early part of their innings and raced to 54-0 inside five overs through an early onslaught from openers Steve O'Keefe and Michael Lumb. Sydney was then on course for victory at 85-1 after eight overs, but again let the Titans back in.
The Titans took 6-47 in the middle part of the innings before Moises Henriques hit two sixes in his 28 from 18 to get the Sixers within sight of victory, with the game swinging back and forth throughout.
Even then, Sydney still required eight off the last over and one off the last delivery.
Cummins (14 not out) played and missed that, but managed to make his ground at the other end for the match-winning run despite tripping over bowler CJ de Villiers and having to crawl the final few paces as wicketkeeper Heino Kuhn's throw flashed wide.
"The bottom line is we have a final to play this Sunday," Haddin said.
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Scores:
Sydney Sixers 164-8 in 20 overs (Michael Lumb 33, Steve O'Keefe 32; Alfonso Thomas 2-36) def. Titans 163-5 in 20 overs (David Wiese 61 not out, Henry Davids 59 not out; Mitchell Starc 2-33) by two wickets.
