IPL: Mumbai Indians set the target high then make sure Bangalore cannot reach it

A relentless batting performance gave Mumbai Indians a formidable total of 194 for seven, and a high-quality bowling show ensured Bangalore would not be able to catch them.

Sachin Tendulkar, pictured from last season, was part of a Mumbai Indians attack that set a target that was unassailable by the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

MUMBAI        194-7 (20ov)

BANGALORE 136-7 (20ov)

Toss Mumbai, chose to bat

Mumbai Smith 50, Karthik 43, Pollard 34; Rampaul 1-35

Bangalore Vinay Kumar 26, Rampaul 23; Kulkarni 3-19

Man of the match
Dwayne Smith (Mumbai Indians)

Over the course of the Indian Premier League 2013, there have been several versions of Mumbai Indians. The team that came out to beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs at Wankhede Stadium was, by some distance, the most intimidating and destructive.

A relentlessly dominant batting performance gave Mumbai a formidable total of 194 for seven, and a high-quality bowling show ensured Bangalore were kept to just 136 for seven. As a contest, the match was settled in a one-over period in which Bangalore went from 37 for one in 6.4 overs to 43 for four in 7.4 overs. The three batsmen dismissed? Chris Gayle, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

Gayle fell to Harbhajan Singh, prompting the off-spinner's own Gangnam-style celebration. But Mitchell Johnson and Lasith Malinga, who were fired up from the start, could claim some of the credit for tying Gayle down, leading to the heave that Ambati Rayudu caught with poise at long-on.

In the next over, Dhawal Kulkarni, starting his first game of the tournament, bowled like a dream, hitting the perfect channel to have batsmen as accomplished as Kohli and De Villiers poking uncertainly to be caught behind. Kulkarni had earlier accounted for a struggling Tillakaratne Dilshan, and his eventual figures of three for 19 in four overs ensured that his first match this year would most likely not be his last.

With the cream of the batting gone, and an asking rate of more than two runs per ball, there was little the lower middle order could do except narrow the margin of defeat.

That the margin was not a good deal higher had to do with Bangalore pulling things back slightly towards the end of Mumbai's innings. Mumbai had looked set for over 200, dominating from the start, when Kohli scored with two successive direct hits. Kieron Pollard fell off the next ball, giving Bangalore three wickets in three balls in the 18th over.

Until then, the Mumbai line-up of Sachin Tendulkar (23 off 13), Dwayne Smith (50 off 36), Dinesh Karthik (43 off 33) and Pollard (34 off 16) had been in complete command.

Tendulkar began Mumbai's innings with four boundaries in a Ravi Rampaul over.

Once he fell, Smith took up the mantle, dispatching Vinay Kumar in the arc between long-on and deep midwicket, with two sixes punctuated by a boundary in an over that yielded 19 runs.

Smith fell soon after completing his second successive half-century, and Rohit Sharma was run-out in a mix-up with Karthik.

After that, Pollard's meaty hits propelled Mumbai out of sight.

Saurabh Somani is assistant editor at Wisden India.

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