Rohit helps Mumbai down Pune

Pune: Mumbai Indians led by Rohit Sharma's unbeaten 85 beat Pune Supergiants by eight wickets in an IPL encounter, here on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 160, Mumbai Indians won in 18.3 overs courtesy Rohit and Jos Buttler (27 no).
Rohit came up with another impressive knock which included eight boundaries and three sixes, as Mumbai chased down the total posting with nine balls to spare.
After the win, Mumbai climb to second position in the points table with 10 points from nine games, having won five and lost four.
Rohit and Parthiv Patel got Mumbai off to a good start scoring 24 without losing any wicket in the first three overs.
But the fourth over witnessed a see-saw battle as Parthiv after striking Ashok Dinda for three consecutive boundaries eventually got a thick edge off a wide off stump delivery which was collectively well by a diving wicket-keeper MS Dhoni, leaving Mumbai at 39 for 1.
Despite the wicket, Rohit and incoming batsman Ambati Rayudu (22) played positively to take their team to a comfortable position.
The duo brought up 50-run partnership for the second wicket to take the team past 75-run mark in the 10th over and stay on course for a good run chase.
After Rayudu's exit, Rohit played sensibly as he continued his good form in the ongoing tournament also bringing up yet another half-century in just 38 balls.
He was well supported in the other end by Jos Buttler (27 not out).
Earlier, Pune Supergiants frittered away a rollicking start as they managed only 159 for five against a disciplined Mumbai Indians attack.
While Steve Smith smashed 45 off 23 balls to raise visions of a formidable total but it was burly Saurabh Tiwary whose 57 off 45 balls (4x4, 2x6) turned out to be weaklink in their batting as he wasted a lot of deliveries at the backend of the innings.
It was his painfully slow batting and quest to reach an individual milestone that saw Supergiants get only 66 runs in their final 10 overs after Smith helped them a set a platform in the first 10 overs which saw MI giving away 93 runs.
There was a poor phase in the Supergiants innings as they lost the momentum between overs 11 and 15 scoring only 27 runs in that phase which was the turning point.
Much of the credit should go to Harbhajan (1/25 in 4 overs) for varying the pace and carefully altering the length of his deliveries as none of the batsmen got to chance his arms during those overs. The most successful bowler was Jasprit Bumrah (3/29 in 4 overs) who was economical as well as picked up the wickets of Smith, Dhoni and Tiwary.
Brief Scores: Pune Supergiants 159 for 5 (Saurabh Tiwary 57, Steve Smith 45, MS Dhoni 24, Jasprit Bumrah 3/29, Harbhajan Singh 1/25) lost to Mumbai Indians 161 for 2 in 18.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 85 no, Jis Buttler 27 no). MI won by 8 wkts. — Agencies