Rampaging Mumbai steamroll Deccan

Mumbai Indians continued their rampage in the IPL by steamrolling Deccan Chargers by 63 runs at the Brabourne Stadium on Saturday. Ambati Rayudu's brisk 29-ball 55 lifted the home side to post a competitive 178-5 before their bowlers stifled the Chargers, bowling them out for a meagre 115 to all but seal their berth in the semi-finals.
Deccan suffered from a shoddy display in the field with several grassed catches and their shocking performance also reflected on their batting. Despite a steady start to their run chase, opener Herschelle Gibbs' downfall opened the floodgates as wickets fell at regular intervals. Plenty of batsmen got off to starts but failed to carry on, with Andrew Symonds top-scoring with 21.
Zaheer Khan, Kieron Pollard and Ryan McLaren picked up two wickets apiece after their opening bowlers choked the batsmen for runs. Gibbs' wicket brought VVS Laxman to the crease, but the batsman departed following a miscommunication with Adam Gilchrist's runner, Ryan McLaren. And when Gilchrist followed him to the pavilion, Deccan had been wobbling at 40-3.
Symonds and Rohit Sharma looked to turn in another rescue act but Sharma was brilliantly caught and bowled by Pollard that sealed Deccan's premature fate. Symonds was cleaned up by McLaren before Mumbai finished off the proceedings with 10 balls to spare.
Earlier, Ambati Rayudu continued a fine run with the bat and was well supported by Saurabh Tiwary (35) after captain Sachin Tendulkar won the toss and elected to bat. The right-hander hit six fours and two sixes in his unbeaten innings as the batsman benefited from a woeful performance from the Deccan Chargers fielders who dropped several catches.
Mumbai were off to a flier thanks to Tendulkar who carried on his superb run, hitting five exquisitely timed boundaries en route his 25-ball 35. The hosts, however, were pegged back by the Deccan spinners led by Pragyan Ojha, who bowled maginificently for figures of 3-26. Leg-spinner Rahul Sharma chipped in with the all-important wicket of Tendulkar.