Mumbai: Chasing down 179 proved too hard for the Deccan Chargers on a slow Brabourne track and Mumbai Indians easily secured their fifth straight win by 63 runs.
The chief architects of the Chargers' loss were Ambati Rayudu with his brilliant half-century and Zaheer Khan with his devastating spell of fast bowling.
The visitors always had an uphill task ahead of them to get to the fighting total and losing two top-order wickets in the space of three balls didn’t help matters.
The Chargers stumbled from 30 for no loss to 40 for three by the seventh over. Zaheer Khan started the collapse by first claiming the wicket of Herschelle Gibbs and he then bowled a beauty of a yorker to DC captain Adam Gilchrist, whose stumps went cart-wheeling.
From then on it was just a matter of time and Andrew Symonds’ dismissal in the 12th over convinced even the most die-hard of DC supporters that theirs was a lost cause.
Earlier, the Mumbai Indians middle-order once again rescued its team from a collapse after the Deccan Chargers spinners Pragyan Ojha and Rahul Sharma had dealt the hosts a triple blow immediately after the Powerplay.
MI, who were 53 after six over, looked like they would emulate Chennai Super Kings and set a huge target for Deccan to chase.
But Ojha’s flight and guile helped him get the scalps of opener Shikhar Dhawan and Dwayne Bravo while leggie Rahul Sharma got the all-important wicket of Sachin Tendulkar (35).
But then Surabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu came together and strung a 65-run partnership in 7.4 overs. Tiwary should thank the Chargers’ fielders having been let off twice in the 14th over. The southpaw took full advantage, peppering the on-side with three sixes.
Rayudu, meanwhile, continued on his merry way hitting all the bowlers with impunity and bringing up his 50 from 28 balls. His 55* is his highest score of his short IPL career.
Mumbai Indians were 127 for 4 in the 17th over, but like in previous games, Deccan again leaked runs in the death overs giving away 51 runs from the last 20 balls. Pollard played a good cameo role scoring 21 runs of 10 balls to take Mumbai to a good total of 178.
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