The potent pair of Sachin Tendulkar and Shikar Dhawan ruthlessly exposed the weak Chennai Super King's bowling attack to score a five-wicket win in the DLF IPL 3 match at the Brabourne Stadium on Thursday night.

The win kept Mumbai’s home record impeccable and pitch forked it to the top of the points table. Chasing 181 for a win, the opening pair of Tendulkar and Dhawan added 92 to set up the victory. Sachin Tendulkar played a captain's innings and shepherded the chase after Mumbai floundered in the middle overs after a good start. At the start, the Mumbai openers were cautious but the bowling was wayward and the extras propped up the run-rate. Dhawan opened up in Joginder’s first over hitting him for three boundaries. Tendulkar anchored while allowing Shikar to play the big shots. The left hander didn’t spare Balaji either, hitting him for a six and a four and then brought up his fifty by lofting Jakati for a six.

The bowling attack, which was laid low by Shikar Dhawan’s aggression regrouped after the opener’s dismissal. Jakati had the last laugh when the batsman holed out. Saurabh Tiwary had a rare failure and Joginder probably bowled his best ball of the tournament to get rid of Sathish as Mumbai struggled.

However, Tendulkar took the responsibility and milked the bowling. He also played the big shots when it mattered like the lofted six off Muralitharan and put Pererra in his place. With both Balaji and Joginder failing to stem the flow of runs Dhoni introduced debutant Thissara Pererra. The Sri Lankan had baptism by fire as the little master gleefully accepted the generous offering to flay 19 runs which settled the issue in favour of the home side. Pollard played a cameo knock and Mumbai despite losing Tendulkar at the fag end of the chase won with ease. Apart from Muralitharan, who struck twice, the Chennai attack was toothless. The pace attack comprising of Balaji and Joginder Sharma lacked firepower to trouble the marauding batsmen. As Dhoni admitted later, his team was lacking in pace department and his bowlers had left Mumbai Indians off the hook.

Earlier, Suresh Raina (83 not out off 52 balls) and Badrinath (55 not out off 45) shared an unbroken 142 run second run wicket stand to help the visitors a competitive total. The famed Mumbai pace attack leaked runs but Harbhajan commanded respect and won a personal battle with Hayden.

Hayden flayed Zaheer Khan for four boundaries and looked in ominous touch. He called for the mangoose bat when Harbhajan came on. But Harbhajan’s quicker delivery accounted for Hayden. McLaren cleaned up Parthiv Patel as Chennai lost two quick wickets. But Raina who was in superb touch tore the attack to shreds. Badrinath played the sheet anchor’s role to perfection while allowing Raina to go after the bowling. Badrinath opened up only in the latter part of the innings and it should take the blame for the late acceleration The visitors eventually finished short by around 20 runs.