Mumbai opener Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith denied Rajasthan any breakthrough as they chased down 163-run target with two overs to spare.

While Smith stayed unbeaten at 87, Tendulkar remained not out after scoring 58 as Mumbai Indians won the last league clash of the tournament by 10 wickets.

Shane Watson top-scored with a 36-ball 45 as Rajasthan Royals posted a challenging 162 for six in their Indian Premier League match against Mumbai Indians.

Watson hit four boundaries and two sixes before Owais Shah and Ashok Menaria provided the late flourish at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.

Batting first after the coin landed in skipper Rahul Dravid’s favour, Rajasthan lost their openers early to be placed at 31 for two in the sixth over.

Dhaval Kulkarni accounted for both the batsmen – he had Dravid caught behind by Dinesh Karthik and then sent back the in-form Ajinkya Rahane as he pulled a short ball straight to midwicket.

Watson along with Stuart Binny added 53 runs for the third wicket to stabilise Rajasthan’s innings. What must have helped the hosts was that the two consumed just six overs to add those runs.

Both played some effective shots during their partnership and prominent among those were the six by Watson over deep midwicket off Dwayne Smith, and Binny’s slog-swept maximum off Harbhajan Singh over deep square leg.

Even the quick Lasith Malinga got a bit of stick initially as Watson picked two fours against the Sri Lankan.

A moment of indiscretion cost Binny his wicket as Kieron Pollard ran him out to cut short his innings at 30 off 17 balls. Binny hit three fours and two sixes.

But Watson continued to fight as he smashed Pollard for a massive six over deep midwicket and followed that with a four to fine leg.

However, while going for one too many, Watson ended up holing out to deep midwicket after mistiming Pollard’s final delivery in the 14th over.

Shah then produced a few hits to the fence, including a six and a four off Pollard, to prop up Rajasthan’s innings.

Shah was, to an extent, helped by Malinga as the Lankan made a mess of a chance in the deep after failing to judge the ball.

Menaria, too, looked in good nick and contributed 21 off 20 balls, which included an upper cut six off R P Singh over third man. Luck was on Menaria’s side as the batsman, after being cleaned up by Malinga, found that the bowler had overstepped.

In the final league game of the season, with the playoff places already decided, Rajasthan have brought in Dishant Yagnik for Shreevats Goswami and Brad Hogg in place of Johan Botha.

Source: Times of India

It had all built up to that one moment. Gautam Gambhir, playing three spinners against the home side’s decision to stick to three fast bowlers at the Wankhede Stadium, had hoped at the toss that the pitch would turn later. Kolkata Knight Riders had just about recovered from a horror start to post a decent 140. Mumbai Indians had found run-scoring as difficult as Knight Riders had, but had lost only two wickets at the halfway stage.

The last ball of the 11th over, Sunil Narine bowled a good length delivery to Sachin Tendulkar, who went for the cut. The ball spun in a mile and cannoned into off stump off bat and pad. Had both not come in the way, it would have taken out leg stump. With one of the game’s greats not being able to pick Narine, the rest of the Mumbai Indians line-up had little chance. He finished with 4 for 15; had Lasith Malinga not got six off a dropped catch on the straight boundary, Narine could have had 5 for 9.

The 32-run margin was substantial in the end, and it was down to how swiftly Knight Riders barged in to the opening created by Tendulkar’s dismissal. The pressure was already on Mumbai Indians after Herschelle Gibbs had crawled to 13 off 24 deliveries, four of those runs being overthrows. When Tendulkar fell, the asking-rate had touched nine. Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard had hunted down a much stiffer target against Royal Challengers Bangalore a couple of day ago. It wasn’t to be today. Not on this pitch.

The Wankhede crowd waited for their all-star line-up to fire. They waited for the big hits to come. In vain. With 58 needed off 28, Shakib Al Hasan lured Rayudu out with a wider one to give Brendon McCullum an easy stumping. Jacques Kallis, who had got a ripper from RP Singh first ball, had Pollard edging a slow bouncer to McCullum. Next ball, he trapped Dwayne Smith in front with a skiddy delivery which nipped in. Rohit Sharma was Mumbai Indians’ only hope now; Narine had him caught by a diving McCullum off a leading edge. The rest caved in.

Smith’s fall had made it 96 for 6, exactly the same perilous position Knight Riders had found themselves in after being stunned early by an atrocious umpiring decision and a terrific ball from RP Singh. Their lower order and Yusuf Pathan rode on some fortune, though, to take 44 off the final 26 balls.

Stroke-making was hard as the usual Wankhede bounce combined with the ball not coming on. The pitch did not have any role to play in the first dismissal, though; umpire Subroto Das had. He adjudged McCullum lbw though the batsman was at least two metres out of his crease to a ball that pitched outside leg and would have missed off. Knight Riders were to get another rough one later, when Tendulkar was caught plumb in front first ball by Shakib, only to be denied by umpire Billy Doctrove.

RP Singh followed up the McCullum wicket by uprooting Kallis’ off stump with a ripper, getting a short of a length ball to swing in and zip through the gate. A stunned Knight Riders tamely allowed the home bowlers to build up the pressure.

Even Gautam Gambhir, who has had a golden run this season, found it difficult to score, and could not capitalise on two let-offs. He was dropped by the wicketkeeper and by Tendulkar at third man, but was bowled on 27 as he missed a Pollard cutter.

Knight Riders continued to struggle to time their shots, with Tiwary pottering to 17 off 27 deliveries at one stage. An inside edge off Pollard brought him four, and he hammered the next ball past mid-off for another. Harbhajan Singh and Malinga were hit down the ground for sixes.

From 6 for 2 to 89 for 3 seemed a creditable recovery, given the pitch, but three wickets for seven runs nearly undid Tiwary’s efforts. Yusuf, caught off a RP Singh no-ball, could not do much to break his poor run, but along with the lower order, managed to get Knight Riders to 140.

It hadn’t looked to be a challenging total at the break, it turned out to be a match-winning one, and all but took Knight Riders to the playoffs.

Abhishek Purohit is an editorial assistant at ESPNcricinfo

Ambati Rayudu and Kieron Pollard made a wonderful partnership of 118 runs and guided Mumbao Indians to victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore. Today Royal Challengers Bangalore were in green outfit. In the chase of 172 runs for victory, Mumbai Indians lost first 3 wickets in no time. They were at a score of 19 for loss of 3 wickets. Soon, they even lost the next two wickets and were at a score of 51 for a loss of 5 wickets.

At this stage, Mumbai Indians were in trouble. But, Ambati Rayudu, and Kieron Pollard show an excellent performance and chased down the required score easily. Amabti Rayudu made outstanding 81 runs without being out in 54 balls with 6 boundaries, and 4 sixers. And Pollard was also not out and made 52 runs in 31 balls with 5 boundaries, and 3 sixes.

Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost their crucial wickets of Chris Gayle and Virat Kohli in the 3rd over itself and were at a score of 11 runs for loss of 2 wickets. After them, Saurabh Tiwary made a poor start, and was unfortunately got hit-wicket for an individual score of 21 runs.

After him AB de Villiers with a score of 14 runs with Dilshan took the score to 87 for a loss of 4 wickets. After the loss of de Villiers wicket, apart from the opener Tillakaratne Dilshan, and Mayank Agarwal could not score well. Mayank Agarwal made 64 runs in 30 balls with 6 boundaries and 4 sixes, and Dilshan made 47runs in 50 balls with 4 boundaries, and a sixer. On the whole, they made a score of 171 in 20 overs.

Squads

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, Herschelle Gibbs, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, c Harshal Patel, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Smith, Kieron Pollard, Lasith Malinga, RP Singh, Munaf Patel.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Saurabh Tiwary, AB de Villiers, Mayank Agarwal, Vinay Kumar, Zaheer Khan, Kotarangada Appanna, Harshal Patel, Muttiah Muralidaran.

Rohit Sharma and Herschelle Gibbs, playing his first game this season, set up Mumbai Indians with a 167-run stand that helped end Kolkata Knight Riders’ unbeaten run of seven games. Rohit, who made his maiden IPL ton, was in complete command and Gibbs settled in quickly despite having watched the bulk of the season from the dug out; the pair justified their captain’s decision to bat, piled on a formidable total that proved beyond the hosts’ reach and preserved Mumbai Indians’ place in the top four.

For a team that had been among the most consistent in this IPL, Knight Riders’ bowling line-up slipped up considerably. Batsmen were given a generous dose of short-pitched deliveries together with width that gave them several opportunities to open up. Both Rohit and Gibbs displayed a ruthlessness that ensured Knight Riders were made to pay. The only highlight for the hosts was the early fall of Sachin Tendulkar; from there on, it was one-way traffic.

Rohit relished the short ball and seemed to have the time to rock back and dispatch it with ease. He pulled Brett Lee for a six over square leg before slashing Shakib Al Hasan twice through point, even as the left-arm spinner pushed one through quicker the second time round. Sunil Narine, difficult to pick, beat the bat on occasion but there was plenty of release available at the other end to deal with him cautiously. Rohit slog-swept Shakib for six and then targeted Jacques Kallis.

Kallis was taken for 18 in the 11th over, Rohit sending him over deep square leg and bringing up his half-century with a flick past short fine leg. Rajat Bhatia’s dibbly-dobblies weren’t spared either, Rohit even sweeping him for four in an over that fetched 19. Returning for a new spell, Lee struggled for the right length – Rohit launched him over long-on, cracked him through point, clipped him over midwicket and brought up his century – the eighth Indian to score a ton in the IPL – in the same over.

Gibbs was comfortable playing second-fiddle but, even then, showed how destructive he could be in his own right. He nonchalantly charged out to Lee to hammer him over extra cover three times in one over, stepped out to Bhatia and Narine to collect more boundaries and marched along to a half-century, giving Mumbai Indians an opening combination they could stick to for the remainder of their campaign.

Knight Riders were dealt a severe blow when they lost their captain Gautam Gambhir – who scored five fifties in his previous nine games – in the first over, bowled while trying to cut. His opening partner Manvinder Bisla top-edged a catch next over, and despite an attempted revival from Kallis, Knight Riders couldn’t get far enough.

On a slowish track, the Mumbai Indians bowlers varied their pace and didn’t dole out too many freebies. Even though Knight Riders bat deep and had Kallis and Yusuf Pathan together for almost half the innings, they struggled to keep up with the required-rate. Kallis, though, managed to reach his first half-century this season and Yusuf, who’d had a forgettable season with the bat before this, found some form during his unbeaten 40. The defeat was a blip Knight Riders could afford, given their place at No.2, but they have stiff competition.

Siddhartha Talya is a sub editor at ESPNcricinfo

Royal Challengers Bangalore have an easy win over Mumbai Indians. Chris Gayle once again showed his outstanding batting performance and helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to chase down the score of 142.

Wankhede stadium, Mumbai possesses one of the tough pitches to bat. And on it, the opponent team for RCB is Mumbai Indians, which have very good bowlers like Malinga, Harbhajan Singh, etc. But, in spite of all these things, Chris Gayle showed his excellent performance with bat. He stood notout for 82 runs in 59 balls with 5 boundaries and 6 sixes. Dilshan made 19runs, and Viral Kohli made 36runs in 25 balls with a boundary and 2 sixers.

Earlier, during the Mumbai Indians innings, they lost 2 early wickets of James Franklin, and Rohit Sharma, and were at a score of 2 runs for 2 wickets. After these 2 wickets, Sachin and Dinesh Kartik build some good partnership and took the score to 41. At the score of 41, MIs lost the wicket of Sachin.

But, Kartik continued his partnership with Ambati Rayudu and took the score to 85, when Rayudu was caught in Patel’s bowling. Soon, Karthik also got out in Muralitharan’s bowling. After them Kieron Pollard, and the skipper Harbhajan Singh few boundaries, and sixers and made a partnership of 41runs. Overall, they could make a score 141runs with a loss of 6 wickets. The spin magician Muralitharan took 2 crucial wickets of Dinesh Karthik, and Dwayne Smith.

Squads:

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, Ambati Rayudu, Sachin Tendulkar, James Franklin, Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Smith, Dinesh Karthik, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh.

Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Mayank Agarwal, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chris Gayle, Zaheer Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Harshal Patel, Jamaluddin Syed Mohammad, Saurabh Tiwary, R Vinay Kumar.

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings by 2 wickets in yet, another thriller ending match. The tension prevailed till the last ball of the match. Dwayne Smith, was the person who completed the chase by hitting a six and 2 boundaries in the last 3 balls and lead the Mumbai Indians to victory.

Mumbai Indians, after losing the early wicket of James Franklin for just a score of 8 runs, Sachin Tendulkar, and Rohit Sharma had a good partnership and added 126runs. At a individual score of 74 runs in 44 balls, with 11 boundaries and a six, Tendulkar was caught in Ashwin’s balling. After his wicket, MI’s lost their next 6 wickets in no more. There were 4 duck-outs. It almost seemed as the Chennai Super Kings were winning, the Dwayne Smith hit a fabulous six and 2 boundaries in the last three balls, and showed the path of victory to Mumbai Indians.

Earlier, during the Chennai Super Kings innings, opener Murali Vijay gave a good start by scoring 41 in 29balls with 4 boundaries and 3 sixers. However, Faf du Plessis was out for just 9 runs. After these 2 wickets, Suresh Raina, and Dwayne Bravo made some quick runs and had a partnership of 62runs. The skipper Dhoni scored 25 runs with 2 boundaries, and a six. After them, none of the batsmen could only make single digit scores. They could make 173runs for 8 wickets. RP Singh, and Malinga took 3 wickets each.

Teams

Chennai Super Kings: MS Dhoni, Murali Vijay, Faf du Plessis, Suresh Raina, Dwayne Bravo, Albie Morkel, Ravindra Jadeja, Subramaniam Badrinath, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ben Hilfenhaus, Shadab Jakati

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, James Franklin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Ambati Rayudu, Dwayne Smith, Robin Peterson, Lasith Malinga, RP Singh, Munaf Patel

Mumbai Indians won the thriller match against Pune Warriors India. Tension prevailed till the last ball of the match. Both teams tried hard to capture the victory, but finally it was the Mumbai Indians who were victorious in another low scoring match. Today it was a bowlers match. MI captured their second victory over PWI.

Pune Warriors Indians were successful in restricting the Mumbai Indians for just 120 runs. But, they were not able to chase such low score and at the end they were fall short of 2 runs to win. They lost a early wicket of Robin Uthappa in the hands of Munaf Patel. There after, they lost wickets on regularly.

It was Mithun Manhas, who stood unbeaten and scored 42 runs in 34 balls with 5 boundaries. He was also the highest scorer of today’s match. Apart from him, none other among his teammates made some good score. Lasith Malinga took the 2 crucial wickets, that too in the correct time, which helped for Mumbai Indians victory.

Earlier, during the Mumbai Indians innings, the openers Sachin Tendulkar, and James Franklin gave a good start to their innings. Apart the loss of these two wickets, this good start could not continued by the middle order batsmen. There after, they lost wickets regularly and could only just score 120 runs. Ashish Nehra, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 2 wickets each.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, James Franklin, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Thisara Perera, Robin Peterson, Lasith Malinga, Pragyan Ojha, Munaf Patel, Ambati Rayudu.

Pune Warriors India: Sourav Ganguly, Jesse Ryder, Steven Smith, Robin Uthappa (wk), Mithun Manhas, Michael Clarke, Wayne Parnell, Murali Kartik, Ashok Dinda, Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Delhi Daredevils had an easy win over Mumbai Indians. Tremendous batting performance of the DD’s top order and good bowling helps them to have an easy win over MIs. Mumbai Indians lost their 1st wicket on the 3rd of the innings itself, and next they lost the second wicket and 3rd wicket for a score of 19 itself.

After these wickets, Dinesh Karthik, and Ambati Rayudu showed some resistance and took the score to 115. After they lost wickets on regularly, and were 38runs deficit for wining at the end of the innings. Irfan Pathan, Shahbaz Nadeem, and Umesh Yadav took 2 wickets each.

Earlier during the Delhi Daredevils Innings, openers Virender Sehwag, Mahela Jayawardene, and Kevin Pietersen showed a outstanding performance and lead the score to shoot-up easily. Skipper, Sehwag showed an outstanding performance by scoring 73 in 39 balls with 8 fours and 4 sixers. Mahela Jayawardene scored 55 runs out of 42 balls, and Kevin Pietersen stood not out by scoring half-century in 26balls with 6 boundaries, and 3 sixes. They made an huge score of 207.

Team

Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag, Naman Ojha, Kevin Pietersen, Mahela Jayawardene, Ross Taylor, Yogesh Nagar, Irfan Pathan, Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav, Shahbaz Nadeem, Ajit Agarkar.

Mumbai Indians: Harbhajan Singh, Aiden Blizzard, Sachin Tendulkar, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Kieron Pollard, Ambati Rayudu, Robin Peterson, RP Singh, Lasith Malinga, Rahul Shukla.

Robin Peterson borrowed shots from his namesake, Kevin Pietersen, as he played a cameo punctuated with switch hits on his IPL debut to snatch victory for the Mumbai Indians. Peterson scored 15 runs off four balls in the penultimate over and Ambati Rayudu smacked two sixes to cost Kings XI 27 runs. The pair took Mumbai from a position where victory seemed unlikely, with 32 runs needed of 12 balls, to where it became an obvious conclusion with only five runs to get in the last over.

After allowing Kings XI Punjab to post their highest total in IPL 2012 with a bowling effort that was dominated by deliveries that were too short, Mumbai were favourites to win when Rohit Sharma was at the crease, marching to his half-century. Parvinder Awana swung the pendulum back towards Kings XI with a double strike in his final over – the 18th – in which he removed both Sharma and Harbhajan Singh. Peterson and Rayudu had the final say though, as they ravaged the 19th over and prevented Kings XI from completing the home and away double against Mumbai this season.

In an innings which mirrored the Kings XI’s, Mumbai started solidly, were held up in the middle and blazed their way through to the end. Sachin Tendulkar and James Franklin, who was moved to open the batting in the previous match and stayed there, built a sturdy foundation. Tendulkar started by sweeping Bhargav Bhatt to long-leg, allowing his touches of finesse to shine through. Franklin clipped Praveen Kumar through midwicket and drove Parvinder Awana over the covers and the pair put on a fuss-free fifty-two run stand.

Azhar Mahmood caused some jitters in the Mumbai camp when he had Franklin caught behind off a beautiful delivery that nipped away from him. In his next over, Mahmood accounted for Tendulkar, who got a thin inside edge through to Nitin Saini. Piyush Chawla had Dinesh Karthik caught at short fine leg and Mumbai were no longer in command. It set the stage for Rohit, who had not performed to expectation so far, to step up and he did. He announced his intent by smashing Chawla for a flat six over long-off and helped himself to boundaries off full tosses offered by both Awana and Praveen when they missed their lines.

Rohit was guiding Mumbai to victory when he slashed the ball to Mahmood at backward point and the advantage returned to Kings XI. Harbhajan made little contribution as he top-edged without moving his feet to be caught at long-off and Mumbai seemed to need a little miracle to dig themselves out of the hole Awana created.

Peterson started the seemingly impossible, switch hitting Chawla twice for four and slog sweeping him for six before Rayudu launched the legspinner for back to back sixes. Mahmood made it tough for Mumbai to score the last five but they did so with a ball to spare to claim a memorable win.

Kings XI would have thought they had enough runs at the halfway stage, having scored 88 runs off the last seven overs of their innings. David Hussey and David Miller starred in the last third of the Kings XI innings to give them a competitive total on a slow surface with a fourth-wicket stand that mixed defiance with aggression.

Saini and Mandeep Singh built a sturdy foundation for Kings XI with an opening stand of 35 but Kings XI stagnated when Mandeep was dismissed. They scored just 12 runs in four overs after Mandeep returned to the dug out and crawled to the 10-over mark at 56 for 2. In a surprise move, Harbhajan brought Franklin on to bowl and he slowed Kings XI up further. He bowled four good balls upfront, which yielded only four runs, before Shaun Marsh attempted to slice a ball over the off-side but top-edged it to Harbhajan at cover, who took a swirling catch.

Miller was the perfect for partner for Hussey and showed aggression from the get-go, when he pulled the second ball he faced, a short one from RP, through midwicket. Having seen short balls get punished, Kieron Pollard offered Hussey two more and was clubbed over midwicket and upper cut over third man.

Munaf Patel searched for yorkers but missed his length and dished out full tosses. Miller swiped him over long-on and Hussey did the same, to bring up a well-earned half-century. Clint McKay copied Munaf and got the yorker right on occasion. Still, he did not survive the late assault from Hussey, who steered him third man and made room to hit him over his head for six. Munaf finished the innings having conceded back to back sixes off Miller, who ended unbeaten on 34 off 17 balls.

Firdose Moonda is ESPNcricinfo‘s South Africa correspondent

Another day. Another ripper. This time seen to rightful rest by Shaun Marsh. The Aussie southpaw smashed an unbeaten 40-ball 68, allowing Kings XI Punjab to chase down Mumbai Indians’ 163 in the last over at the Wankhede Stadium on Sunday.

Marsh’s knock overshadowed James Franklin’s 51-ball 79 in the first innings, as a Sachin Tendulkar-reinforced Mumbai failed to defeat an Adam Gilchrist-less Punjab. Mumbai elected to bat and posted a total at least 20 runs less than what they had appeared set for when Franklin and Dinesh Karthik were going great guns, and failed to restrict Punjab despite Kieron Pollard’s unbelievable 4-0-14-2 outing.

Marsh was accorded timely help by Nitin Saini (30), Mandeep Singh (24) and David Hussey (21) – who was captaining the side – and in the end Punjab’s batsmen completed what had been set up by their bowlers, principally Parvinder Awana (4-0-23-2) and Piyush Chawla (4-0-19-0).

Earlier, Mumbai won the toss and limped at the beginning of their innings, scoring their first run only after eight balls had been bowled, as Praveen Kumar and left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt bowled testing spells. Opening with Tendulkar, back after an injury layoff, and Franklin the home team reached 34 runs in five overs.

Tendulkar played a few crisp strokes, caressing Azhar Mahmood for a four through third man, and was dropped by Awana at fine leg off the same bowler. But the lapse did not prove costly as the maestro was run-out soon after – by a direct hit from David Miller from deep mid-wicket. Rohit Sharma was dismissed cheaply in the next over – the tenth – and then followed a phase of aggression from Mumbai, as Franklin and Dinesh Karthik combined for 75 in six overs.

Franklin powered Bhatt into the crowd, heaving the ball from outside off to the leg side, a stroke that brought him one of his four sixes. Karthik too made his time in the middle count, reverse sweeping Hussey and blitzing Mahmood for fours. A total in excess of 180 looked on the cards when these two were cruising along, but Karthik was run out going for a second as Mumbai ran into a road block.

Wickets started to tumble as the new batsmen looked to turn it on. Pollard, Franklin and Harbhajan Singh all got out within ten runs of each other (Praveen claiming two in two balls) and Mumbai finished with a total well short of what they looked like getting at one stage.

Source: Yahoo Cricket