Tailender Anand Joseph turned out to be the unlikely hero as his breathtaking unbeaten three-ball 16 pulled off an incredible heist for Thrissur Titans at the Sports Hub Greenfield stadium here on Thursday. His heroics punched Titans’ ticket for the Kerala Cricket League final with a one-wicket win over Trivandrum Royals in the semifinals.

Titans needed 15 from the last over bowled by Rahul Chandran and the left-arm pacer piled on the pressure by conceding only two runs from the first two deliveries. However, Anand launched the third ball over long-off for a towering six, slammed the next one past mid-on for a four and sealed the win with a six over mid-wicket.

Earlier, Anand had made a definite impact with the new ball as he snuffed out the dangerous Vishnu Vinod and in-form captain Krishna Prasad to reduce Royals to 31 for two.

Left-arm spinner Biju Narayan then choked the flow of runs in the middle overs with a tidy spell of two for 20 as Royals slumped to 93 for five. However, Akshay Manohar (53 not out, 26b, 4×4, 3×6) and M. Nikhil (28 not out, 15b, 2×4, 2×6) added 70 from 35 balls for the sixth wicket to raise the total to 163 for five.

Titans lost its openers early but a 45-run third wicket stand between Ahammed Imran (43) and Shoun Roger (23) put the chase back on track. Captain S. Akhil (27) kept his team in the hunt even as wickets fell regularly in the death overs. It looked like curtains for Titans when Akhil fell in the 19th over but Anand’s sensational knock saved the day for his side.

The scores: Trivandrum Royals 163/5 in 20 overs (Akshay Manohar 53 n.o., Biju Narayanan 2/20, Anand Joseph 2/31) lost to Thrissur Titans 167/9 in 19.5 overs (Ahammed Imran 42, Rahul Chandran 3/32, M. Nikhil 2/29).

Thursday’s match: Thrissur Titans 140 in 19.5 overs (Biju Narayanan 37 n.o., K.A. Ajinas 3/20, Sibin P. Girish 2/22, T.S.Vinil 2/27, Abhijith Praveen 2/32) lost to Alleppey Ripples 142/7 in 18.5 overs (M. Sreeroop 31, Sibin P. Girish 31 n.o., Muhammed Irshad 4/38).