The 45th match of the Indian Premier league fifth season was played at the Subrato Roy Sahara Stadium in Pune on Thursday between the Mumbai Indians and the Pune Warriors. The match had a tight finish till the last ball and in the end Mumbai Indians win by a valuable run. Mumbai won the toss and elected to bat. Good start by Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar and J Franklin gave the necessary pep to the otherwise dull performance of the team. Sachin scored 34 runs and Franklin made 25 runs. For the Pune Warriors, bowlers Kumar and Nehra played a crucial role and grabbed two wickets each. In the first half Mumbai made 120 runs after losing nine wickets.

Pune Warriors who came on field with a target of 121runs to win, played some confident shots. Robin Uthappa did some good batting and scored 18 runs before being taken away for a leg before, to a ball by Munaf Patel. But the batting honors which kept the hopes alive for the supporters was from Manas who played a splendid innings and remained not out till the end while scoring 42 runs.  However the last over by Munaf when the home team needed just 12 runs to win, was a crucial turning point for Mumbai Indians. The tight over saw the visitors win the match by a run. Pune scored just 119/6, in the stipulated twenty overs.

Commendable efforts of the bowlers were conspicuous in the Mumbai victory. Barely 120 runs to defend their skin some good bowling efforts by the Mumbai Skipper Harbhajan Singh and his companion Lasith Malinga did play the match into the hands of the team. Both of them claimed two wickets each but restricted the batsmen well. Lasith was named the Man of the match.

In yet another match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, Kings XI Punbjab wins over Royal Challengers Bangalore, on Thursday.  (With Inputs from Internet- Aarkay)