IPL 5: Clinical Mumbai thrash Deccan by five wickets

Backed by a disciplined bowling display and later Rohit Sharma's patient 42-run knock helped Mumbai Indians beat Deccan Chargers by 5 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Chasing a meagre target of 101 runs, Mumbai got off to a nervy start, as Deccan's prime fast bowler Dale Steyn struck on the very first ball of the second innings to clean up opener Richard Levi for a duck. Initially there was seam and swing for the faster bowlers and quickies troubled the Mumbai batsmen. Then in the sixth over youngster Veer Pratap Singh claimed Sachin Tendulkar (14) caught at second slip by Dan Christian.

Again Steyn came back to remove Dinesh Karthik (2) to give Deccan a ray of hope in defending a low total, as Mumbai were 45 for 3 in 8.3 overs. After that Mumbai tried to play it safe with Rohit Sharma batting sensibly at the middle, but Rohit lost his patience and skied one easy catch off JP Duminy between mid-off and mid-on. Rohit scored 42 off 48 balls, which included a six and four boundaries.

When James Franklin got out to Ashish Reddy in the seventeenth over, the match was almost over with Mumbai 81 for 5, however Deccan somehow had the thought to sneak in a victory, but Amit Mishra gave away 14 runs in the 18th over to dampen the visiting team's chance of a win. At the end it was Ambati Rayudu (19 not out) as always took Mumbai past the modest target of 101 runs in 18.1 overs.

Earlier, Mumbai Indians after opting to field produced a brilliant bowling performance led by Lasith Malinga, who picked up 4 for 16 to bundle out Deccan Chargers for 100 runs. Harbhajan Singh was the first to damage earlier on by picking up two wickets for a measly 13 runs and Deccan just kept losing wickets at regular intervals. James Franklin too picked up two wickets in one over while RP Singh and Munaf Patel took one each.

Deccan got off to a steady start with openers Shikhar Dhawan and Parthiv Patel making 37 off 33 balls in their opening stand. Dhawan made 29 off 32 balls which included three fours, and Parthiv Patel scored 19 off 18 balls, when their team was stuttering at 66 for 6 at the end of the 13th over before recovering to reach 100.

Jean Paul Duminy remained unbeaten on 25 and was the only batsman other than the openers to get into double figures on a day when their captain Kumar Sangakkara opted to sit out and left the duties to Cameron White. Mumbai were also without Kieron Pollard, who injured his shoulder in the last match.