Sachin Tendulkar and Ambati Rayudu stroked half centuries in Mumbai Indians’ 23-run victory over Kings XI Punjab in their Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium here Monday.

After Mumbai were sent in, Tendulkar (51) and Rayudu (51) mustered 95 runs for the second wicket to boost Mumbai Indians’ total to 159/5. The hosts then unfolded a disciplined bowling attack and sharp fielding to restrict Kings XI Punjab to 136/8.

Mumbai Indians now top the table with six wins from their eight matches while Kings XI Punjab are at the eight place with with three wins from seven matches.

For Punjab, Shaun Marsh stood tall amist the ruins with a gritty 61 off 47 balls.

Punjab were off to a terrible start, losing skipper Adam Gilchrist for a duck in the very first over. The former Australia wicketkeeper-batsman was trapped leg before by Harbhajan Singh (2-25), who opened the attack.

Marsh and Paul Valthaty (33 off 38) then set down to build the innings and put on a crucial 72-run stand for the second wicket before Andrew Symonds struck. In-form Valthay was caught by Kieron Pollard while attempting to send Symonds for a straighter boundary.

His wicket proved to be the turning point and triggered a middle-order collapse.

Marsh waged a lone battle before Lasith Malinga (2-19), who is in red-hot form, got him caught at mid-wicket by Tendulkar.

Munaf Patel was also impressive with his figures of 2-18.

It was not a perfect start for Mumbai as well as the hosts lost opener Davy Jacobs early in the third over before Tendulkar and Rayudu resurrected their innings.

Tendulkar hit a six and three boundaries in his 45-ball innings while Rayudu stroked a six and eight fours in his aggressive 37-ball knock.

Kieron Pollard (20) and Rohit Sharma (18) provided the late thrust after the hosts lost Sachin and Rayudu in quick succession.

Pollard hit two towering sixes and a four in his 11-ball knock whereas Sharma slammed three boundaries in his 11-ball innings.

For Punjab, pacer Ryan Harris took 2-33 and leg-spinner Piysh Chawla 2-37

Scoreboard

Mumbai Indians:
Davy Jacobs b Bipul Sharma 10
Sachin Tendulkar c Nayar b Harris 51
Ambati Rayudu c Karthik b Chawla 51
Kieron Pollard c Valthaty b Chawla 20
Rohit Sharma c Hussey b Harris 18
Andrew Symonds not out 4
T.Suman not out 0
Extras (b-2, lb-1, w-2): 5
Total (for five wickets in 20 overs): 159

Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Jacobs, 2.3 overs), 2-109 (Rayudu, 14.3), 3-129 (Tendulkar, 16.2), 4-144 (Pollard, 17.6), 5-158 (Sharma, 19.5)

Bowling:
Bhargav Bhatt 4-0-26-0
Praveen Kumar 3-0-28-0
Bipul Sharma 4-0-22-1
Ryan Harris 4-0-33-2
Piyush Chawla 4-0-37-2
Paul Valthaty 1-0-10-0

Kings XI Punjab:
Paul Valthaty c Pollard b Symonds 33
Adam Gilchrist lbw b Harbhajan Singh 0
Shaun Marsh c Tendulkar b Malinga 61
David Hussey c Sharma b Patel 1
Dinesh Karthik lbw b Pollard 1
Abhishek Nayar c Symonds b Harbhajan Singh 14
Bipul Sharma b Malinga 1
Piyush Chawla not out 10
Ryan Harris c Pollard b Patel 1
Praveen Kumar not out 2
Extras (b-6, lb-5, w-1): 12
Total (for eight wickets in 20 overs): 136

Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Gilchrist, 0.5 overs), 2-73 (Valthaty, 10.5), 3-79 (Hussey, 12.2), 4-83 (Karthik, 13.2), 5-113 (Nayar, 15.6), 6-116 (Bipul Sharma, 16.4), 7-131 (Marsh, 18.5), 8-132 (Harris, 19.1)

Bowling:
Harbhajan Singh 4-0-25-2
Lasith Malinga 4-0-19-2
Abu Ahmed 3-0-22-0
Munaf Patel 4-0-18-2
T Suman 1-0-12-0
Kieron Pollard 3-0-18-1
Andrew Symonds 1-0-11-1

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena (Sri Lanka) and Paul Reiffel (Australia)
TV umpire: K. Hariharan
Match referee: Satayabrata Mukherjee