New Delhi: Mumbai Indians today gave a fitting farewell to Sachin Tendulkar's T20 career by notching up a comprehensive 33-run victory over Rajasthan Royals to clinch the Champions League Twenty20 title here. This is the second CLT20 title for the IPL-6 winners, having won the 2011 edition. Chasing a massive 203-run target, Royals folded for 169 even after a fabulous start that saw them scoring 100 runs in nine overs. Tendulkar and Royals skipper Rahul Dravid, both of whom having announced quitting the T20 game after today's match, were out for low scores.
Despite openers Ajinkya Rahane (65) and Sanju Samson (60) chipping in with quickfire half-centuries, Mumbai Indians bowlers came up with impressive bowling performance towards the fag end of their innings to have the last laugh. India discard Harbhajan Singh finished with impressive 4-0-32-4 with three wickets coming in just one over, which proved to be the turning point of the match. Kieron Pollard chipped in with three wickets for 31. From 155 for three in 16 overs, the Royals collapsed dramatically to lose as many as six wickets for just 14 runs.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians batsmen fired in unison to post 202 for six. After a solid start by opener Dwayne Smith (44) and a valuable 33 off 14 balls by skipper Rohit Sharma in the middle, Glenn Maxwell's 14-ball 37 cameo in the end took the IPL champions past 200-run mark. This was the highest total for the Mumbai Indians, who scored 142 runs in their last 10 overs today, in the Champions League Twenty20.
Earlier, Rajasthan Royals skipper Rahul Dravid and Mumbai Indians' Sachin Tendulkar, playing their last Twenty20 matches, were given a guard of honour by their team-mates during the Champions League Twenty20 final at the Ferozeshah Kotla here today. Rajasthan players offered the ceremonial salute to their skipper Dravid as they entered the field after electing to field while Tendulkar was given the guard of honour after being bowled by Shane Watson for 15. Tendulkar also got the standing ovation from the crowd while walking back to the pavilion as he took off his helmet, raised his bat and acknowledged the cheers of the packed 45,000-capacity stadium.
