Mumbai book place in final

Mumbai Indians marched into the Indian Premier League (IPL) final after they crushed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 35 runs. Mumbai, whose huge total was courtesy Saurabh Tiwary (52) and Ambati Rayadu (40) topped off by Kieron Pollard (33) blasting the opposition bowlers to help Mumbai finish with 184 for five and then contain Bangalore to 149 in 20 overs.

Tiwary and Rayadu added 67 for the fifth wicket after Mumbai were reduced to 77 for four. Pollard then justified his expensive price-tag in the IPL by plundering a 13-ball cameo that included three sixes and one four. Bangalore had a reasonable start to the game after they claimed the highest run-scorer in the tournament and Mumbai’s captain Sachin Tendulkar for nine in the second over. Shikhar Dhawan was the next man to be dismissed cheaply before Rayadu and Abhishek Nayar (22) added 39 runs.

Nayar was dismissed by Kevin Pietersen and then skipper Anil Kumble got JP Duminy caught out before the script started going wrong. By the 15th over, Mumbai had crawled to 107. But from that point on, runs started flowing freely as Jacques Kallis and Kumble went for 17 off their single overs. Rayadu fell in the 18th over before Pollard blazed away, adding 40 runs in only 14 balls with Tiwary to take Mumbai to a competitive total. When Bangalore came out to bat, they found it hard to get over the late pounding by Mumbai.

They were off to a reasonable start, reaching 81 for two in nine overs before Pollard dismissed Robin Uthappa (26) and then ran out Rahul Dravid (23) to derail the innings. He grabbed another two wickets as Bangalore collapsed to 108 for six and were virtually out of the game. Virat Kohli was dismissed for nine and Manish Pandey went back for five as Mumbai put a stranglehold on the game.

Ross Taylor (31) held one end together but was quickly running out of partners as Harbhajan Singh picked up the wicket of Praveen Kumar to reduce Bangalore to 118 for seven at the end of 15 overs. Any hopes of a Pollard-repeat in the last overs were demolished by Lasith Malinga and Dilhara Fernando, who cleaned up the tail. The win made Mumbai the first team to go through to the finals guaranteeing them a place in the Champions League Twenty20 in September.