With a superb display of aggressive batting, Rohit Sharma and Andrew Symonds rescued Mumbai Indians after a sudden collapse and helped the team post a 37-run win over Deccan Chargers in the IPL-IV at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Sunday.
And when Deccan Chargers was batting, Mumbai Indians came up with an authoritative display on the field to choke the home team's hopes of putting up a fight.
In the end it was the team with greater determination and focus which emerged the winner. Teamwork, understanding and confidence — all these factors contributed to the Mumbai Indians' win.
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The Mumbai bowlers bowled to their field and stuck to the right line and length. On the other hand, the inability of the Deccan Chargers batsmen to push the scoring rate at crucial stages contributed to their team's defeat.
Deccan Chargers won the toss and decided to put Mumbai Indians in to bat. Chargers brought in Ishant Sharma in place of Harmeet Singh, who had got two important wickets in the previous match.
But the move was expected since coach Darren Lehmann had already indicated that Ishant would be played against Mumbai.
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Sachin Tendulkar set to rest all speculation about whether he would play or not (in view of the demise of Sri Satya Sai Baba) when he appeared on the field an hour before the start and went through his warm-up routine.
Ishant strikes
Mumbai got off to a good start as Tendulkar and Jacobs put on 47 in the first five overs before Ishant struck the first blow for Chargers.
Jacobs tried to pull a short ball and skied it to deep mid on where Pragyan Ojha took a well-judged catch.
Then Amit Mishra foxed Tendulkar with a well-flighted delivery. Tendulkar's attempted drive went high and ended up in the hands of Dale Steyn at long on.
Two balls later Mishra got rid of Ambati Rayudu; the batsman's attempted sweep saw the ball take the top edge and go straight to Shikhar Dhawan at deep square leg.
Then off the very first ball of the next over Keiron Pollard was dismissed — caught behind off Ojha for a first ball duck.
The quick blows came just when Mumbai Indians was trying to build on a good start and that slowed its momentum.
But Rohit and Symonds came up with that all important stand of 102 runs off 65 balls which took the visitor to a sound position.
In the last five overs they added 70 runs, 40 coming in the last two overs. And the Chargers' bowling which had looked so threatening at one stage fell apart.
Initially Rohit and Symonds showed maturity in their shot selection and applied themselves to the task in a disciplined manner. Neither swing nor spin affected their concentration.
It was only later that they cut loose and hammered the bowling to all parts of the field to take the team to a fighting total of 172.
When Deccan Chargers began the chase, it suffered an early setback.
The openers Sunny Sohal and Dhawan were going for quick singles and during one such attempt, an accurate return from Pollard at point had Sohal run out.
Lasith Malinga came on in the sixth over and began demolishing the batting line-up with a barrage of yorkers.
He bowled Dhawan with the fourth ball of his first over and later got the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara in a similar manner.
He enticed Ravi Teja to give him a return catch as the batsman failed to read a slower delivery.
At no stage did Deccan Chargers look like it would be able to overtake Mumbai Indians' total and the end was quite a tame finish.
Mumbai Indians: D. Jacobs c Ojha b Ishant 32 ( 20b, 5x4, 1x6), S. Tendulkar c Steyn b Mishra 28 ( 24b, 4x4), A. Rayudu c Dhawan b Mishra 7 ( 8b), K. Pollard c Sangakkarra b Ojha 0 ( 1b), Rohit (not out) 56 ( 34b, 5x4, 3x6), A. Symonds (not out) 44 ( 33b, 4x4, 1x6), Extras (lb-3, w-2): 5; Total (for four wkts. in 20 overs ) 172.
Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-70, 3-70, 4-70.
Deccan Chargers bowling: Mishra 4-0-14-2, Steyn 4-0-39-0, Ojha 4-0-29-1, Ishant 4-0-39-1, Christian 4-0-48-0.
Deccan Chargers: S. Sohal (run out) 5 ( 3b), S. Dhawan b Malinga 25 ( 22b, 5x4), K. Sangakkara b Malinga 34 ( 28b, 3x4), C. White (run out) 1 ( 7b), B. Chipli c Sathish b Pollard 6 ( 8b, 1x4), D. Christian st. Jacobs b Munaf 21 ( 18b, 1x4, 1x6), Ravi Teja c & b Malinga 1 ( 4b), A. Mishra (not out) 25 ( 19b, 4x4), D. Steyn (run out) 4 ( 9b), Ishant Sharma (not out) 1 ( 2b), Extras (lb-5, w-7): 12; Total (for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 135.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-41, 3-54, 4-70, 5-93, 6-99, 7-101, 8-128.
Mumbai Indians bowling: Munaf 4-0-35-1, Harbhajan 4-0-27-0, Ahmed 4-0-27-0, Malinga 4-0-9-3, Pollard 2-0-20-1, Sathish 2-0-12-0.
Man-of-the-Match: L. Malinga