Jaipur: An unbeaten stand of 163 runs between openers Dwayne Smith (87 in 58 balls) and Sachin Tendulkar (58 in 51 balls) helped Mumbai Indians thrash Rajasthan Royals by 10 wickets in the last league clash of the IPL-V at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here on Sunday night.
Mumbai finished the campaign by gaining 20 points while, Rajasthan Royals could manage only 16 points.
The Harbhajan Singh-led side will now clash with Chennai Super Kings in the first eliminator of the playoffs on May 23 in Bangalore.
Smith completed his half century off 34 balls with five fours and three sixes while Tendulkar made his fifty off 44 balls with the help of five fours.
The fielding of the hosts was very poor as they dropped many catches.
Earlier, Shane Watson (45 in 36 balls) and Stuart Binny (30 in 17 balls) added 53 runs for the third wicket to help Rajasthan make 162 for 6.
Owais Shah (28) and Bradley Hogg (0) were returned unbeaten.
Electing to bat first, Rajasthan start was not good as they lost two early wickets for 31. Skipper Rahul Dravid returned for a low score of 5.
Dhawal Kulkarni, who has come in the team instead of Munaf Patel struck in his first over and second of the team.
Ajinkya Rahane fell while trying to pull hard but only played in the air for Rohit Sharma to take a simple catch.
He made 13 off 17 with two fours. The team score was then 31.
Binny and Watson then added 53 runs for the third wicket and reached the score at 84.
At this score the partnership was broken by Pollard when Binny managed to run himself out. He missed the ball on the leg side and charged out for the single as the ball rolled off the pad down the pitch, but barged straight into the huge frame of Pollard. By the time he turned around, Pollard easily strode towards the ball, and kick the ball which eventually rolled onto the stumps.
Binny was just short of his crease, with Pollard between him and the stumps. He hits three fours and two sixes in his innings.
Watson was removed by Pollard who wanted to hit over the deep midwicket but bounced from just back of a length, and Smith made no mistake to catch him for 45 off 36 with four boundaries and two sixes.
Kulkarni was the main destroyer taking three wickets for 18. Malinga and Pollard took one wicket apiece. (UNI)