IPL 2010: Mumbai Indians Reach Their First Final

IPL 2010: Mumbai Indians Reach Their First Final

©REUTERS / Action Images (file photo)

Mumbai Indians 184-6 (Tiwary 52no) beat
Royal Challengers Bangalore 149-9 (Pollard 3-17) by 35 runs
Indian Premier League semi-final, Mumbai
Scorecard

The Mumbai Indians reached their first Indian Premier League final with a comprehensive 35-run win over 2009 runners-up the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

The Indians hammered 77 runs in the final five overs of their innings to post 184 for six and in reply, the Challengers closed on 149 for nine.

Mumbai were rocked by the early dismissal of Sachin Tendulkar, caught in the covers by Ross Taylor for nine as Dale Steyn took the first of two wickets, and then the run out of Shikhar Dhawan for 12 left them in some trouble.

Abhishek Nayar (22) and Ambati Rayadu (40) helped them salvage the innings and holding back in-form pair Saurabh Tiwary and Kieron Pollard for the death overs proved to be a shrewd move as the two of them prospered.

Tiwary made an unbeaten 52 in 31 balls, with three fours and four sixes and Pollard blasted an unbeaten 33 in 13 deliveries with one four and three maximums as the boundaries flowed.

JP Duminy was the other man to fall, caught by Kevin Pietersen after a leading edge induced by Anil Kumble was pouched.

Just as Tendulkar's early departure had been a blow for the Indians, so for the Challengers was that of Jacques Kallis, who edged Lasith Malinga to Rayadu behind the stumps but unlike the Indians, the Challengers were unable to recover and they kept on losing wickets.

Rahul Dravid (22), Pietersen (19) and Robin Uthappa (27) all starred briefly, Uthappa hitting two sixes and Pietersen looking assured before he was brilliantly stumped by Rayadu, but they badly needed one of their big-name players to get in and score big.

Virat Kohli (9), Manish Pandey (5) and Praveen Kumar (0) then fell cheaply as they failed to deal with the mounting run-rate and although Ross Taylor hit out and stayed unbeaten, on 31, he had been left with far too much to do.

Pollard backed up his batting with three for 17 while Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh took a pair of wickets apiece.

It wasn't all good news for Mumbai, however, as Tendulkar had to leave the field and have five stitches inserted in a hand wound after he just failed to take a low catch at slip that would have seen Dravid depart a little earlier.

© Cricket World 2010

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