Mumbai book final spot but Tendulkar injured
The Mumbai Indians have continued on their winning way in their IPL semi-final against the Royal Challengers Bangalore, booking a place in the final with a 35-run win in Mumbai.
While Mumbai ultimately achieved the desired result, when Sachin Tendulkar chose the semi-finals to make his first single-figure total of the 2010 IPL season, Bangalore must have scented just the whiff of a possible upset victory against the top-of-the-table team.
But by the time Mumbai had played out their full 20 overs, Anil Kumble’s team were facing a target of 185 for victory after Tendulkar’s teammates plundered 77 runs off the last five overs, with Kieron Pollard’s timely 33 not out from 13 proving pivotal at the end of the Mumbai innings.
Credit too must go to Saurabh Tiwary whose unbeaten 52 from 31 balls helped to kick-start the Mumbai innings after the batting side limped through a suffocating spell of spin bowling in the middle overs.
While the Mumbai skipper will be celebrating his team’s passage to the final, he’s personally had a day to forget with a rare failure with the bat trumped by a fielding injury when in attempting to take a low catch off a Rahul Dravid edge he split the webbing between his fingers and was forced from the field. All eyes will now be on his recovery in the days leading up to Sunday’s final.
Sent out to field first by Tendulkar, Bangalore had resisted the urge to place the new ball straight into Dale Steyn’s hands, but when the South African was introduced into the attack in the second over he made the early breakthrough that Kumble’s team needed.
Mumbai skipper Tendulkar had found the boundary twice when the South African enticed him to stretch for a wider delivery and the Little Master got just enough on it to provide the low catch to Ross Taylor at cover, out for nine.
The news didn’t get any better for the top-of-the-table side when Tendulkar’s opening partner, Shikhar Dhawan, followed soon after, a direct hit by Virat Kohli at the non-striker's end sending the batsman on his way for 12.
While Kumble and Kevin Pietersen combined for a six-over bowling partnership that yielded two wickets and just 31 runs in the middle of Mumbai’s innings, once that was over the Mumbai batsman took to Bangalore’s bowlers with relish.
The return of Jacques Kallis in the 16th over was welcomed by the batsman, who took 17 runs from it – 16 of them from Tiwary’s bat as Mumbai sought to mount a defendable total. That they did, and with 77 runs from the final five overs passed the 180-run mark.
Bangalore started their chase with intent, racing to 19 runs after two overs before Mumbai strike bowler Lasith Malinga removed explosive opener Jacques Kallis for 11. This, then, wasn’t going to be a contest between the competition’s two highest run-getters, but a test of how their respective teams performed in the event of their batting failures.
In the end though, it was Tendulkar’s Mumbai that proved the side which was better equipped to cope in the absence of a telling contribution from their captain, and which ultimately sealed a comfortable win and a place in the final.
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