Images: Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals

After Rajasthan Royals won the toss and elected to field, Shane Watson provided the early breakthrough; he sent the dangerous Sanath Jayasuriya back to the pavilion in the second over of the match.

Watson bowled one outside off stump, but Jayasuriya hit straight to Abhishek Jhunjhunwala in the covers. Three balls later, he had Ambati Rayudu caught behind by wicketkeeper Naman Ojha for nought.

Saurabh Tiwary, who joined Tendulkar, hit couple of boundaries, before succumbing to a Watson bouncer that had him caught at fine leg by Aditya Dole.

Mumbai Indians were reduced to 34 for three wickets in four overs.

Photographs: IPL/Getty Images

Tendulkar and Duminy put their heads down and steadied the Mumbai Indians' ship. Duminy broke the shackles a bit with a couple of boundaries, first off Yusuf Pathan and then Jhunjhunwala in each over.

He repeated it with another boundary off Shane Warne.

Tendulkar too joined the party, as he hit three crisp boundaries off Warne as Mumbai looked to move on.

Just when things were looking up for Mumbai, Siddharth Trivedi forced Duminy to play a lose shot. Duminy tried to play a pull off a short ball, only to hit it straight to Michael Lumb at short square leg.

The South African made 31 runs off 32 balls, hitting four boundaries in the process.

The Tendulkar-Duminy duo put on 63-run stand to bring Mumbai back in the hunt.

Tendulkar, meanwhile, continued to pile on runs in the tournament. He was lucky when Dole dropped an easy chance off Trivedi.

Tendulkar tried to hook a bouncer only to top edge it, but Dole spilled the catch at fine leg. He was on 45 then.

The master blaster soon completed his fifth half-century of the tournament with a single off Dole.

Kieron Pollard who had come in with big-hitting reputation, showed glimpses of what he is capable of during in his brief stay at the crease.

He first hit young Dole for a boundary over mid-off, and then followed it up another boundary off Watson, as he made his intentions clear.

But he was at his destructive best off Dole's third over, when he hit him for a six and boundary. But the bowler had the last laugh as he cleaned up the West Indian off the last ball off the last ball of the over.

Pollard hit a quick-fire 25 off 13 balls, which included three boundaries and six, but, more importantly, he carried on the momentum adding 50 runs for the fifth wicket.

Tendulkar made full use of the reprieve he got off and made the bowlers pay dearly.

The Indian maestro hit two back-to-back boundaries off Watson's final over, following it up with two sixes and a boundary as the visitors finished at an impressive 174 for five.

He remained unbeaten on 89, in the process overtaking Jacques Kallis as the leading run-scorer of the tournament.

Chasing a competitive 175 for a victory, Rajasthan were off to the worst possible start. Michael Lumb started the innings with a couple of boundaries off Dhawal Kulkarni, but was out the very next ball, caught at point by Duminy for eight.

In the very next over, Zaheer Khan had Naman Ojha edging one to Tendulkar in the slips. Things worsened when Shane Watson was run out three balls later, reducing Royals to 11 for three.

Faiz Fazal did hit couple of boundaries, but couldn't carry on as he too fell to some poor running by the Royals.

With wickets tumbling around, all hopes rested on Yusuf Patahn. Yusuf had hit a swashbuckling 37-ball hundred the last time both the teams met, but couldn't repeat the performance.

He looked ominous when he hit Pollard out of the park, but was soon gobbled up by Harbhajan Singh off Pollard, the very next ball.

Adam Vogues and Aditya Dole did make some contributions, but they were late as Royals finished with 137 for eight in stipulated over, 37-runs short of the target.

Mumbai Indians, in the process, became the first team to reach the semi-finals of the tournament.