Keiron Pollard of Mumbai Indians celebrates with Jasprit Bumrah (centre) after taking Kevon Cooper of Rajasthan Royals’ wicket during the second qualifying match of the Indian Premier League at the Eden Gardens Stadium in Kolkata, yesterday.
NEW DELHI: Riding on the explosive opening stand between Dwayne Smith (62) and Aditya Tare (35), Mumbai Indians beat Rajasthan Royals by four wickets to enter the IPL final at the Eden Gardens.
Mumbai will face two-time champions Chennai Super Kings in the summit clash tomorrow.
Chasing 166-run target, Smith scored quick-fire 44-ball 62, which included two sixes and six fours, to lead the Mumbai run chase.
Pacer Kevon Cooper provided another breakthrough for Royals as he dismissed Dinesh Karthik (22) in the fifteenth over to reduce Mumbai to 125/2 in 14.1 overs.
Karthik hit three boundaries in his aggressive 17-ball cameo.
Mumbai lost Aditya Tare (35) after the opener added 70 runs with Smith.
Tare and Smith gave Mumbai a flying start as they hit boundaries at will before Cooper got better of Tare in the tenth over.
Tare smacked two maximums and three fours in his quick-fire 27-ball 35.
Rajasthan Royals rode on a gritty 43 by Rahul Dravid before Dishant Yagnik upped the ante with an unbeaten 17-ball 31 to set a challenging target of 166.
Dravid was Royals’ top-scorer as they seemed to struggle in the middle before Yagnik, who hit five fours, and Hodge (19 not out) added 57 runs in 27 balls to prop up their side. They were also helped by some shoddy bowling by Malinga in the last over.
Harbhajan Singh made full use of the overcast conditions returning with figures of 3/23, before Kieron Pollard took two in one over to further damage Royals’ scoring rate after they opted to bat first. AGENCIES
