Another match lost by the team standing seventh in the IPL points table, the Bangalore Royal Challengers, showed their inability to perform at yet another occasion. The team of the Mumbai Indians affected a win in their last match in the IPL and got a consolation after losing their place in the semi-finals.
The match was affected slightly by rain and the innings was reduced to 18 overs. However the rain could not affect the spirits of the Mumbai Indians, whether it was batting or bowling. The Bangalore team batted first and was limited to a score of 122 runs in the 18 over play. The batsmen of the Bangalore team were seen to fail miserably again today with only a few to be crossing the twenties mark. The highest individual score in the team being 26 runs by White, the poor performance of the batsmen could have credited for this defeat. Vinay Kumar scored 23 runs and followed the highest batsmen. Bowling attack by Fernando, Pollock and Nehra limited the score of the Bangalore team to a measly 122 runs.
The Mumbai team however seemed to be in good spirits even after the rains. Jayasuriya and Tendulkar opened strike for the team and gave a good opening. Both batsmen started to play well with Sanath making 54 runs off 37 balls. Tendulkar on the other hand made 40 runs off 43 balls. In the twelfth over, Sanath lost his wicket to Steyn. However, Uthappa came in with Sachin for this situation and victory was in the Mumbai hands very soon after that. Dilhara Fernando was awarded the man of the match for his 4 wicket haul.
