Sachin Tendulkar produced another Indian Premier League batting masterclass as the Mumbai Indians qualified for the semi-finals with a comprehensive 37-run win over the Rajasthan Royals.
Tendulkar batted through Mumbai's innings and took full advantage of being dropped by Aditya Dole when on 45 to see his side to a score of 174 for five before the Royals could only manage 137 for eight in reply.
Early on in his well-crafted innings, Tendulkar went to the top of the table for boundaries scored in the 2010 IPL and he soon became the seventh man to score 1000 IPL runs.
After hitting Shane Warne for 14 runs in one over he was dropped at long leg by Dole as he tried to pull Siddharth Trivedi and the Royals would pay dearly. Tendulkar passed his half-century and then raced past Jacques Kallis tot he top of the 2010 run-scoring lists, finishing by smacking Trivedi for 20 runs in the final over of the innings.
The Royals held the upper hand early on when Shane Watson's aggressive spell brought him the wickets of Sanath Jayasuriya, caught at mid-off by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala for one, Ambati Rayadu, caught by Naman Ojha for a duck adnd Saurabh Tiwary, caught by Dole at deep backward square leg.
Tendulkar then shared half-century stands with JP Duminy (31 in 32 balls) and Kieron Pollard (25 in 13 balls) and he closed the innings unbeaten on 89 in 59 balls having hit ten fours and two sixes.
The Royals, needing a fast start, got off to a poor one when openers Michael Lumb (8) and Ojha (0) were caught at backward point and slip respectively and it got worse when some chaotic bating ended in Watson being run out for one and Faiz Fazal departing in the same manner for ten.
Jhunjhunwala attempted to stabilise the innings but he too was run out for 22, Tiwary and Rayadu combining to end his day's work.
Controlled bowling from Mumbai and disciplined fielding, a late inconsequential drop from Lasith Malinga aside, led to more wickets tumbling and the match was quickly over as a contest, despite Dole hitting out to good effect with 30 in 18 balls and Adam Voges also making 28.
Zaheer Khan bowled superbly to return two for 17 and there was a wicket apiece for Dhawal Kulkarni, Harbhajan Singh and Pollard as the Royals were beaten in Jaipur for the first time.
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