Mumbai Indians defended a small total of 120 and dashed Pune Warriors' hopes of scoring a second victory against it in the DLF-IPL-V and won by one run at the Subrata Roy Sahara Stadium here on Thursday. The match swung like a pendulum after Michael Clarke and Steven Smith fell to off-spinner Harbhajan Singh and left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha by the 10th over.

Slow pitch The MI spinners exploited the slow nature of the pitch to their advantage and sensed a last chance when Lasith Malinga hit the top of the middle stump of Sourav Ganguly and followed it up with the wicket of Wayne Parnell. The seventh wicket pair of Mithun Manhas and Bhuvneshwar Kumar needed 12 runs in the last over to take Pune past the finishing line.

Bhuvneshwar hit a boundary off Munaf Patel off the penultimate ball but the home team lost by a run as it could manage only two runs off the last ball. It was MI's sixth win in the league and will stay in the third position in the table. Earlier, left-arm seamer Ashish Nehra vindicated his captain's faith in him in an almost make-or-mar match for the Warriors.

Nehra strikes Hammered by Sachin Tendulkar and James Franklin for 14 runs in the last of the Power Play overs, Nehra demonstrated his ability to surprise the batsmen striking crucial blows in his second spell and paved the way for his team's comeback.

Coming into the match with a meagre return of six wickets at 48.67, Nehra was seen to be the weak link in the four-pronged seam attack spearheaded by Ashoke Dinda. Warriors skipper Ganguly began with left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, deployed five bowlers in the Power Play and exercised a fair amount of control over the MI openers with Dinda's superb first over even keeping Tendulkar quiet.

It was a free-hit offer when left-arm seamer Parnell overstepped that gave the freedom for Franklin to swing his bat for the first boundary of the match in the third over. Soon Tendulkar sort of settled scores with Dinda hitting him for three fours and MI touched an average of seven punishing Nehra in the sixth.

The pitch appeared distinctly sluggish, but the actual threat emerged from Bhuvneshwar Kumar who first broke MI's promising first wicket stand at 50. It was the third half-century partnership between Tendulkar and Franklin. Rohit Sharma was run out by some smart work by Smith and MI had lost its in-form batsman. Nehra's double-strike removing Tendulkar and Robin Peterson put the host in firm control.

Mumbai Indians added a mere 47 runs from the seventh to the 14th overs and lost three vital wickets. Nehra conceded just five runs in the second spell of three overs and Kumar landed the ball at the right areas to finish with excellent figures of two for nine in three overs. After several misses Malinga hit two big blows that produced 26 runs for the eighth wicket for MI to set Warriors almost a run-a-ball target.

Scoreboard Mumbai Indians: J. Franklin c Manhas b Bhuvneshwar 25 (23b, 3x4, 1x6), S. Tendulkar c Uthappa b Nehra 34 (35b, 4x4), Rohit (run out) 3 (5b), R. Peterson c Ganguly b Nehra 13 (14b, 1x4), D. Karthik (not out) 18 (22b, 1x4), A. Rayudu b Bhuvneshwar 1 (3b), T. Perera (run out) 0 (4b), Harbhajan c Parnell b Dinda 0 (1b), L. Malinga (run out) 14 (14b, 1x4, 1x6), P. Ojha (run out) 1 (1b); Extras (b-1, lb-3, nb-2, w-5): 11; Total (for nine wkts. in 20 overs): 120.

Fall of wickets: 1-50 (Franklin), 2-56 (Rohit), 3-81 (Tendulkar), 4-88 (Peterson), 5-92 (Rayudu), 6-93 (Perera), 7-93 (Harbhajan), 8-119 (Malinga), 9-120 (Ojha). Pune Warriors bowling: Kartik 3-0-27-0, Dinda 4-1-34-1, Parnell 4-0-18-0, Bhuvneshwar 3-0-9-2, Nehra 4-0-19-2, Clarke 2-0-9-0.

Pune Warriors: R. Uthappa lbw b Munaf 18 (18b, 2x4, 1x6), J. Ryder c Perera b Harbhajan 9 (13b, 1x4), M. Clarke lbw b Harbhajan 14 (15b, 2x4), S. Ganguly b Malinga 16 (24b, 1x4), S. Smith b Ojha 2 (6b), M. Manhas (not out) 42 (34b, 5x4), W. Parnell c Peterson b Malinga 2 (4b), Bhuvneshwar (not out) 10 (6b, 1x4); Extras (w-6): 6; Total (for six wkts. in 20 overs): 119.

Fall of wickets: 1-20 (Uthappa), 2-40 (Ryder), 3-44 (Clarke), 4-47 (Smith), 5-94 (Ganguly), 6-105 (Parnell). Mumbai Indians bowling: Malinga 4-0-25-2, Munaf 4-0-24-1, Harbhajan 4-0-18-2, Ojha 4-0-24-1, Franklin 3-0-20-0, Perera 1-0-8-0. Man-of-the-match: L. Malinga.