Put in to bat first, skipper Tendulkar weathered the storm with his career-best IPL knock to steer Mumbai to 174-5 after his side initially stumbled to 30-3. Later, Zaheer Khan bowled a stirring first spell to peg Royals back, leaving their batsmen little opportunity to claw back at their own fortress. Fittingly, Tendulkar’s fifth IPL-3 fifty also helped him regain the orange cap while sealing Mumbai’s first-ever semi-final berth.
The enormity of the win reflected in Tendulkar’s comment after the maestro picked up yet another Man-of-the-Match award. “In the first season, this was the same ground that made us lose the semi-final spot, and now in the same ground we have made our way to the semis, it feels good,” he said.
Defending 175, Mumbai’s world-class bowling attack stifled the Royals chase, restricting Shane Warne’s outfit to 137-8 in 20 overs, despite heavy dew that made the going difficult both for the fielders and the spin bowlers. Mumbai’s ground fielding appeared like that of a side possessed, and the positive body language that of a champion team. Zaheer led the charge in his first spell, removing the dangerous Naman Ojha and conceding only 2 runs in as many overs. The others also performed to the script, while the Royals wrote their own fate by suffering as many as three run-outs on the night.
Tendulkar usually introduces a slow bowler early but it was perhaps the dew that drove him to continue with pace until the seventh over when Harbhajan Singh was brought on. Eventually, the spin duo of Harbhajan and Sanath Jayasuriya managed 1-37 from a combined six overs, a telling factor in Mumbai’s victory. Similarly, Rajasthan held back two premier batsmen Yusuf Pathan and Adam Voges to allow the ball to get wetter, and the spinners to lose their grip. Unfortunately for the inaugural champions, the gamble to hold back Pathan backfired, and Mumbai sailed to a convincing victory.
The in-form Michael Lumb looked in red-hot form when he struck Dhawal Kulkarni for two fours in the second over, before slashing the next ball to point. Zaheer got the ball to dart around at the other end in excess of 140 kmph, removing Ojha, and sharing some heated exchanges with Watson. The pressure exerted by the bowlers told on Rajasthan’s reckless running between the wickets, as both Watson and Faiz Fazal were run out after responding to late calls from their partners. Jhunjhunwala (22) and Voges (28) hung about, but their impact player Yusuf Pathan lasted only eight deliveries.
The mosquito repellent used to wipe out moths at the beginning of the match caused some delay to the start of the game until the sight of Tendulkar and Sanath Jayasuriya walking into the ground downed the lid on the anxiety. Jayasuriya, who is now a member of the Sri Lankan parliament, spooned a wide Shane Watson delivery to Abhishek Jhunjhunwala at extra cover in just the second over. Two balls later, Ambati Rayudu gloved a Watson bouncer to the keeper, after being stared down by the Australian. Royals continued to chatter, hustle and pressurise the batsmen, as Saurabh Tiwary succumbed, miscuing a pull-shot off Watson to Aditya Dole at fine-leg. The ‘Mumbai are over dependent on Tendulkar’ rants were out again.
Jean-Paul Duminy added 63 runs off 52 balls for the fourth-wicket with Tendulkar to stabilise the innings. In the 8th over, the big faceoff, Warne’s first delivery to Tendulkar was interrupted by a moth. Tendulkar finally got a measure of his old rival in the twelfth over, smashing the leggie for three boundaries. First, he stepped down the track and went inside out over extra cover, next he lofted it even higher over the same region, and finally finished the over with a trademark square cut.
Duminy’s miscued pull shot in the thirteenth over prompted another setback, as Mumbai scored only 15 runs with three boundaries between the 13th and the 16th over. Kieron Pollard (25) broke the shackles with a thwart down the ground just prior to the strategic time-out. Pollard’s intentions became clear, as Mumbai took 15 runs off the next over from the returning Watson.
Dole bowled around the wicket and cramped the right-handers for room, and the youngster’s strategy paid off when Pollard was cleaned up in the 18th over. At 143-5 after 18 overs, most punters would have written off 160, but Tendulkar had other ideas. Continuing the assault on Watson in the penultimate over, and winding up by taking Siddharth Trivedi for two huge sixes in the last, Tendulkar also regained the Orange Cap from Jacques Kallis in the process. The last four overs yielded fifty nine runs, as Mumbai powered their way to a highly respectable 174.
An elated skipper at the presentation ceremony, Tendulkar said, “We needed a solid performance, and I thought 170-plus was competitive. All the credit goes to the way our fast bowlers bowled at the start, especially Zaheer who was simply fantastic.” He was also quick to acknowledge the successful recovery by the middle-order. “The target (for JP and himself) was to try and stay until the end. We knew the big overs were around the corner, and it was about protecting wickets,” Tendulkar said.
Mumbai Indians will now return to the Brabourne Stadium for their last home fixture this IPL season against the Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday.
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