Mumbai Indians beat the Challengers in inconsequential match, finish fifth by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Royal Challengers Bangalore v Mumbai Indians
Player:	CRD Fernando, SR Tendulkar, ST Jayasuriya, CL White, RS Dravid, R Vinay Kumar, SP Goswami
Event:	Indian Premier League 2007/08

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DateLine: 29th May 2008

 

In the penultimate match of the league matches in the first season of the DLF IPL, the Mumbai Indians soundly beat the Bangalore Royal Challengers by nine wickets and with 12 deliveries to spare. The match was of academic interest only as both the teams had been knocked out of the tournament and the prospects of rain washing out play may not have proved to be that big a dampener. As it turned out, the match was reduced to an 18-over a side one.

 

Mumbai skipper, Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to field first on an outfield beaten down heavily by rain. Bangalore had dropped both their openers from the previous match, Jacques Kallis and Wasim Jaffer, and opened with Sreevats Goswami and Mark Boucher and the duo added 35 in just above five overs. However, once Dilhara Fernando came onto bowl, Boucher, Misbah-ul-Haq and Goswami departed rather quickly, leaving the Challengers struggling at 39/3. Cameron White and Rahul Dravid did bring in some respectability to the inning, but took a little too much time, and then lost four wickets nine runs! Vinay Kumar did provide the fans with something to rejoice with a 17-ball 23, but the Bangalore team got to only 122/9 in the allocated 18 overs. Dilhara Fernando scalped 4/18 in his four overs, where as Dwayne Smith got a three wicket haul.

 

Mumbai Indians reply was typical of their batting in the tournament. Sachin Tendulkar gave the necessary support to the rampaging Jayasuriya as the duo added 96 for the first wicket. Jayasuriya scored another fifty – that came off less than 40 balls – and by the time he departed, the asking rate was not even six runs per over. Robin Uthappa, who has not had a great tournament, ended it on a positive note with an unbeaten 19 – in front of his home crowd – while Tendulkar remained not-out for a well crafted 40.

 

In the end, it was a case of too little too late. Dilhara Fernando, the man responsible for bowling a wayward last over in the last match, was declared the Man-of-the-Match for his four wicket haul. Mumbai went up to 14 points with this win, thus ending at the fifth place on the table. Bangalore ended at seventh.