A Rohit Sharma blitzkrieg and a brilliant opening burst from Mitchell Johnson gave the Mumbai Indians a comfortable 41-run victory over the Pune Warriors India in the Maharashtra Derby of IPL 2013 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Sharma's pyrotechnics in the final overs propelled Mumbai to 183 for three from their 20 overs, before the bowlers, led by Johnson, restricted their local rivals to 142 for eight, to post their third straight win in IPL 2013.
The chase began in the worst possible manner for Pune, who lost their first wicket in the very first ball of the innings. Aaron Finch could do nothing as Mitchell Johnson produced an in-swinging peach to shatter his fellow Aussie's stumps.
Ross Taylor came in and started off with a boundary off his second delivery, but some miscommunication with Robin Uthappa between the wickets led to the former's demise, as Pune stared at the barrel on five for two.
Uthappa did not have to wait too long, before seeing his stumps knocked off the ground courtesy another in-swinging ripper from Johnson (three for 33).
Tirumalasetti Suman (23 in 15) threatened to cut loose with a couple of boundaries, but one aggressive shot too many led to him being caught at long-on off Harbhajan Singh's bowling.
The game was crying out for a Yuvraj Singh special, but the Indian left-hander departed after a couple of typically brutal boundaries.
Pune captain Angelo Mathews followed suit soon after, before Mitchell Marsh tried his best to keep the match interesting.
The Australian all-rounder, though, was just left to do too much, as Pune ended well short of their target.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians had another memorable outing with the bat, starting with the much-vaunted pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting putting up their second 50-run partnership of IPL 2013 - their first since their opening match of the tournament - to build a solid platform.
Ponting (14 in 17)still did not look at his best, but Tendulkar was very much back to his best, smashing the ball all around the park, including four straight boundaries off Ashok Dinda, who had plenty more punishment to take, in the third over.
The Mumbai skipper, who won the toss and chose to bat first, was the first to go, caught at short backward point by Abhishek Nayar for Yuvraj Singh's first wicket, with the first wicket alliance yielding 54 runs, the highest so far between the duo.
Eight runs later, Tendulkar (44, 29b, 7x4, 1x6) also had to walk back to the pavilion, after seeing his skier well snatched by Mitchell Marsh, with Aaron Finch picking up the wicket.
However, with Dinesh Karthik in a mean mood all tournament, the runs kept flowing at a decent rate with Rohit Sharma coming in at the fall of Tendulkar's wicket.
Karthik scored 41 (29b, 4x4, 1x6) to recapture the Orange Cap, before perishing, lbw to Marsh. Mumbai, who had 11,000 kids in the stadium as part of owner Nita Ambani's "Education for All" programme, on 115 for three in 15.1 overs, were in need a final assault and Sharma provided the watching kids some unforgettable entertainment with some brilliant batting.
It was not Kieron Pollard who lent into the Pune bowlers, but Sharma, who cut loose with deadly effect, bludgeoning the bowlers with disdain, as the Mumbai innings went from OK to brilliant.
Sharma (62, 32b, 3x4, 5x6) absolutely lent into Dinda, with the final five overs yielding 68 runs, which really took the game away from Pune.
