Comfortable win for Mumbai

JP Duminy blasted a fine unbeaten half-century for Mumbai as they recorded an impressive victory

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An unbroken century stand between Ajinkya Rahane and JP Duminy earned Mumbai Indians a comfortable 16-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League today.

The pair shared a partnership of 104 to take the Indians from 53 for two to 157 for two and pave the way for a victory.

Rahane struck 62 from 49 balls and Duminy 59 from 41 before the Mumbai bowlers finished the job.

Dhawal Kulkarni, Lasith Malinga, Dwayne Bravo, Chetanya Nanda and Harbhajan Singh were all among the wickets as Mumbai limited their opponents to 141 for seven.

Harbhajan was the pick of the bowlers with 2-15 from his four overs.

Only Mark Boucher offered any real resistance with an impressive unbeaten 48, but his side were already in real trouble by the time the South African came to the crease.

Jacques Kallis (12) and Robin Uthappa (four) fell in successive overs early on and from then on Bangalore were always fighting an uphill battle.

Virat Kohli contributed a useful 20 and Boucher added the highest score of the innings from 33 balls, but the steady loss of wickets undermined any hope they had of successfully making the run chase.

Things had earlier looked promising for Bangalore when Vinay Kumar removed dangerman Sachin Tendulkar for a three-ball duck after Mumbai had won the toss and elected to bat first.

Sanath Jayasuriya managed 29 before he too fell, trapped lbw by Roelof van der Merwe, but the partnership between Rahane and Duminy proved a matchwinning one.

The pair cut loose in the closing stages as they upped the run rate to take Mumbai past the 150-mark, a total which proved too much for the Royal Challengers.