A DRY slow pitch and the early fall of Sachin Tendulkar, on whom Mumbai Indians tend to depend far too much, combined to produce a thrilling game that concluded in the last over at the Brabourne Stadium. (Scores: Mumbai Indians 164 for 6 (Dhawan 50, Tiwary 31) beat Kings XI Punjab 163 (Marsh 57, Malinga 4-22) by four wickets.)
Set a target of 164 after Lasith Malinga had restricted Kings XI Punjab with a four-for, Mumbai stumbled at various points of the chase but found enough vital contributions to clinch the game with three balls to spare.
Shikhar Dhawan laid the platform with a half-century, Saurabh Tiwary lifted Mumbai with a breezy 31 just when it seemed they might lose their way, and R. Sathish produced the final flourish to push them past the line and take them a step closer towards a semi-final berth.
Mumbai needed 19 from the final two overs but Sathish produced two skilful hits to the ropes – an inside-out shot over cover and a whip-lash square drive – off Ravi Bopara, and Saurabh Tiwary thrashed a straight boundary to leave themselves six to get off the final over.
Sathish held his nerves to collect a couple of driven twos and Brett Lee fired a wide down the leg-side, as Punjab slipped to their sixth defeat in the tournament.
It wasn’t quite a quality game, but it made for interesting viewing. Despite a composed fifty from Dhawan, Mumbai dawdled in the chase to reach a situation where they needed 57 from 33 balls.
It was at this point that the game started to turn in their favour. Tiwary slog-swept Piyush Chawla for a six and Ambati Rayudu pulled the same bowler to the wide long-on boundary to reduce the equation to 46 from 30 balls
However, Bopara, who bowled medium pace not dissimilar to Chris Harris, slipped in a few tight overs in the company of the equally impressive Shalabh Srivastava.
And when Bopara picked up the vital wicket of Dwayne Bravo with a slower one and Srivastava bowled a few dot balls, the equation read 27 from 15 balls. It was a make-or-break moment, and Tiwary forced Mumbai ahead with a fierce flat-batted six over long-off off Srivastava; Sathish settled the issue in the next over with his strikes against Bopara.

It was a chase that ebbed and flowed right from the start. Dhawan had started it with two boundaries in Lee’s first over but Srivastava bowled a tight over to keep Tendulkar quiet. It was the first sign that things might not be so easy for Mumbai.
Chawla then struck a big blow, luring Tendulkar to hole out to long-on in the sixth over to push Mumbai to 42 for 1. Dhawan and Kieron Pollard pushed Mumbai forward but Pollard holed out to long-on, and Dhawan to long-off, to leave their team struggling at 91 for 3 from 11.4 overs. But they found enough firepower from the lower middle-order to clinch their sixth win.  (Cricinfo)