Bangalore, Apr 18 (IANS): Mumbai Indians beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 57 runs at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here Saturday to retain their top position in the Indian Premier League (IPL) table.
Chasing a challenging target of 192, Royal Challengers were all out for 134 in the must-win match for the home team to stay in the race for a berth in the semi finals.
With seven wins and seven losses, though Challengers remained in the second position with a net run rate of 0.219, their prospects of getting into the semifinals depends on the outcome of the last league matches of the other contenders.
Put to bat after losing the toss, Mumbai Indians scored 191 for the loss of 4 wickets, with the top and middle order batsmen putting up an impressive performance by hitting as many as 10 sixes and 14 fours.
Though Challengers started on a promising note to chase a tall order, the top order failed to sustain the momentum after openers Manish Pandey and Jacques Kallis exited by the sixth over with the score just 31.
Attempts by Kevin Peterson and Rahul Dravid to accelerate the score were scuttled by spin bowler Harbhajan Singh when both were caught by Saurabh Tiwary and Kieron Pollard in the ninth and 11th over respectively.
The quick departure of local hero and in-form middle order batsman Robin Uthappa after scoring only four singles in the 12th over and Ross Taylor for 9 in the 15th over dashed all hopes of the Challengers in winning their last league match.
A rearguard action by Virat Kohli with four 4s and one six was too late and too little though he was the top scorer with 37 runs for the Challengers.
For the Mumbai Indians, Pollard was the most successful bowler with three wickets for 28 runs, followed by Harbhajan and Dilhara Fernando with two wickets each for 24 and 28 runs respectively.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians made a breezy 191 with a run rate of 9.55 in an exciting match that started an hour behind schedule at 5 p.m. following two low-intensity blasts outside the stadium causing panic and a snag in one of the generators supplying power to the floodlights.
Ambati Rayudu was the top scorer for Mumbai Indians, hitting 46 in 27 balls, with four sixes and three fours, followed by JP Duminy at 42 in 19 balls with three 6s and three 4s, and Ryan McLaren at 40 with four 4s.
Jacques Kallis was the most successful bowler for the Challengers, with the prized wickets of Tendulkar and Pollard, while ace leggie Kumble and Peterson took one each.
The Challengers also gave away 15 precious extras.