Mumbai Indians' march continues

Mumbai: After relatively easy wins over the last 10 days, Mumbai Indians was made to sweat by Kings XI Punjab until Rajagopal Sathish (17 not out off nine balls) and Harbhajan Singh, requiring to score at a run a ball in the last over, delivered their side to a memorable sixth victory with four wickets in hand and three balls to spare in the DLF-IPL III at the Brabourne Stadium.

Sachin Tendulkar's faith in left-hander Saurabh Tiwary paid off again as the Jharkhand captain scored 31 off 21 balls.

Before the dramatic last few overs the home team's top three batsmen — Shikhar Dhawan, Tendulkar and Kieron Pollard — played lofted shots and Irfan Pathan, Ravi Bopara and Shaun Marsh made no mistake at the fence.

A thorn in the flesh of his previous opponents, Tendulkar was not given leeway by left-arm seamer Shalabh Srivastava and in trying to push the run rate he perished to leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

Dhawan sustained the flurry of shots on his way to a half century, while Pollard appeared all at sea against Chawla.

Marsh excels

As anticipated Marsh, playing his first match this IPL season, shouldered the responsibility of anchoring the Kings XI innings until a peach of a yorker from Man-of-the-match Lasith Malinga (four for 22) dismantled his stumps.

Except for the left-hander none of the other batsmen who followed after the dismissal of Ravi Bopara were able to repel the Mumbai Indians attack with any degree of confidence.