Mumbai: Mumbai Indians won comfortably by 44 runs against Delhi Daredevils at Wankhade Stadium on Tuesday. Despite losing Ricky Ponting and Sachin Tendulkar at a score of 1, Mumbai went on to score 209, all thanks to a scintillating batting display by Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma.

In all praise for Karthik and Sharma, skipper Ponting said that both the players batted with complete freedom and that paid well for the team. "To make that kind of score was awesome. We've spoken about playing this tournament with freedom and both Rohit and Dinesh did that today. Things have started coming together quite nicely. And later we knew if we got Warner earlt, we could win the game," said Ponting.

Meanwhile a disappointed Mahela Jayawardene said that they let Mumbai Indians score 20-30 runs more. "We needed a good start. Warner and Manprit batted well but it was around 20-30 runs too much. Maybe 180 was a par score but we were that disciplined with our bowling. Dinesh Karthik and Rohit Sharma put us under pressure after 6-7 overs. We need to be bit more disciplined against a good line-up on a good wicket. We just need to trust our ability and fight for everything. One win and hopefully we'll turn it around," said Jayawardene.

Karthik was give the Man of the Match for his swashbuckling 86. "It was a good wicket to bat on. I thought I'd play a few shots and it came off. I was trying to play cricketing shots, nothing out of the book. Rohit batted wonderfully. It was important he batted till the end after I got out and he did that well. It's important to be consistent and help my team win more games," said Karthik.

By Indian Sports News Network