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Mumbai edge past Pune

Pune - The Mumbai Indians took a step closer to the Pepsi Indian Premier League playoffs when they defeated the Pune Warriors by five wickets at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium on Saturday.

Mumbai were made to work hard for their victory after they had restricted the Warriors to just 112 for eight when the home side had won the toss and elected to bat first. Mumbai eventually achieved their victory target, ending on 116 for five with only seven balls remaining.

The two main pillars for Pune this season were dismissed early on, with Aaron Finch (10) and Robin Uthappa (11) both back in the hut with the score on 25. Mitchell Johnson made the breakthrough near the end of the third over when he had Finch caught by Dwayne Smith.

Full Scorecard: Pune v Mumbai

Once Lasith Malinga had dismissed Uthappa, Manish Pandey (29) and Yuvraj Singh (33) added 59 for the third wicket off 50 balls to steady the ship. But then the wickets started to tumble when Pandey was caught by Ambati Rayudu off Malinga at the end of the 13th over.

Pune lost the wickets of Pandey, Yuvraj and Angelo Mathews (0) in the space of five balls, as they were reduced to 85 for five. The hosts were not able to come back from that as they limped to 112 for eight.

Johnson showed some of his old magic, ending on 4-0-8-2 while Abu Nechim and Malinga both finished with 2-27 from four overs. Harbhajan Singh was miserly as ever, conceding just 14 runs for the wicket of Yuvraj, whom he trapped lbw.

Mumbai, who would have hoped to reach their target as quickly as possible to increase their net run-rate, began disastrously when Dwayne Smith (0) was bowled first ball by Ashok Dinda (2-35), with a ball that moved away beautifully from the right-hander to crash into the off-stump.

Sachin Tendulkar (15) and Dinesh Karthik (17) steadied the ship somewhat with a 25-run partnership for the second wicket, but Tendulkar then mis-timed a shot to Pandey at deep midwicket off Ajantha Mendis (4-0-15-1) in the fifth over.

Karthik and captain Rohit Sharma moved the score along to 39 before Karthik sliced a ball from Yuvraj (4-0-15-1) to Pandey at long-off, leaving the visitors a little anxious.

But Sharma (37) and Ambati Rayudu added a patient 54 for the fourth wicket before Rayudu (26) was caught by Mathews off Dinda. Glenn Maxwell joined Sharma and seemed to guide them home, except that Kane Richardson (1-28) had other ideas when he dismissed Sharma with the scores level.

It was a match consisting of bad batting and some very good bowling, with Pune suffering their 12th defeat of the campaign. This victory for the Mumbai Indians sees them move into second position on the IPL log, level on points with the Rajasthan Royals, but with a superior net run-rate.

PUNE WARRIORS: RV Uthappa (wk), AJ Finch (capt), MK Pandey, Yuvraj Singh, AD Mathews, AM Nayar, B Kumar, Parvez Rasool, KW Richardson, AB Dinda, BAW Mendis

MUMBAI INDIANS: DR Smith, SR Tendulkar, KD Karthik (wk), RG Sharma (capt), GJ Maxwell, AT Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, MG Johnson, SL Malinga, PP Ojha, AN Ahmed
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