Mumbai beat Royals to go top

The Mumbai Indians moved to the top of the IPL table on Wednesday with a 14-run win over the Rajasthan Royals, though they are level on points with the Chennai Super Kings and are already into the play-offs.

The Mumbai Indians moved to the top of the IPL table on Wednesday with a 14-run win over the Rajasthan Royals, though they are level on points with the Chennai Super Kings and are already into the play-offs.

The Royals are also pretty sure of a spot so there wasn't much riding on the game, though they would have liked to keep their good form running. But they could not reach the 167 required for victory and made 152 for seven.

Mumbai, without Sachin Tendulkar thanks to injury, batted first and opened with million dollar man Glenn Maxwell and Aditya Tare. They could only put on 25 together, with Maxwell bagging 23 of those before falling to countryman Shane Watson.

Tare was the mainstay of the knock, taking a rare chance to score a half century off 37 balls, He fell for 59 with the score on 108, caught by Watson off Kevon Cooper. Meanwhile, Dinesh Karthik had made 21 and was the third-best scorer.

The rest of the order weren't particularly impressive, as James Faulkner added two more wickets to his tally, but they did manage to post a defendable score some hefty swipes from Harbhajan Singh, who ended on 15 not out.

The Royals were soon pn the back foot as they lost three of their top four batsmen for just four runs each, and the other one, Faulkner, could only make 12. Dhawal Kulkarni took two of those wickets, damaging the top order.

Brad Hodge was the top scorer for the Royals, making 39 before being trapped in front by Lasith Malinga in the final over, after he and Stuart Binny, not out on 37, tried in vain to reach the target.

Mumbai Indians: G Maxwell, A Tare, D Karthik, R Sharma, K Pollard, A Rayudu, Harbhajan Singh, M Johnson, D Kulkarni, L Malinga, P Ojha

Rajasthan Royals: R Dravid, A Rahane, S Watson, S Samson, S Binny, B Hodge, D Yagnik, K Cooper, J Faulkner, A Chavan, P Tambe

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