It’s a story about two islanders, Sanath Jayasuriya and Dilhara Fernando. That, it was a rain-curtailed, inconsequential match, mattered little to the duo. For them it was payback time. The bulky bowler and the veteran southpaw had goofed up in the last match. The pacer had first bowled a wide and then gifted away two runs of the final delivery of the match. Jayasuriya had failed to collect the return throw as Rajasthan batsmen completed the winning runs, thereby packing off Mumbai Indians from the IPL.So the script unfolded today as if by design — beginning with Fernando, ending with Jayasuriya. In the process, the Sri Lankans redeemed themselves after having buckled under pressure in their previous tie. The result: Mumbai Indians beat Bangalore handsomely by nine wickets.When the 28-year-old pacer came in to bowl as first change, Bangalore were 34 for no loss after five overs with Mark Boucher and Sreevats Goswami at the crease. Fernando claimed two in the over — the South African pulling the bowler over mid-wicket and mistiming his shot to give Robin Uthappa a simple catch. Then in the final ball of the over, he had birthday boy Misbah-ul-Haq caught at slip by Tendulkar. Fernando would have added another had Takawale not dropped Goswami. But the islander did not have to wait too long. In the first ball of his next, Goswami’s ambitious attempt to loft straight over the bowler’s head could not find the right elevation, and ended with Ashish Nehra. The hosts slumped from 34 for no loss to 39-3 in 10 deliveries. The Sri Lankan’s first spell read an enviable 2-0-3-3. The Challengers never recovered after the initial burst from the pacer. He took one more - Vinay Kumar - to finish with figures of 4-0-18-4, the target 123 in 18 overs. Fernando also took a catch and was involved in a last-ball run-out of Praveen Kumar. At Jaipur, he’d missed one on the last ball of the match as he’d buckled under pressure. But Fernando holds a reputation of winning or losing a game in a spell. He proved it in the last two games.It was then the turn of the other Lankan as Mumbai began their chase. The southpaw started from the word go, hitting the first ball he faced from Anil Kumble for four. And he didn’t look back as he butchered the bowlers on his way to a 37-ball 54. He was all around the park, hitting four sixes and an equal number of boundaries. Dale Steyn finally sent him back but by then he had completed his 500 runs in the tournament and also hit his 31st six in the IPL and the 100th four.Scoreboard Royal ChallengersM Boucher c Uthappa b Fernando (15b, 3x4) 18 S Goswami c Nehra b Fernando (24b, 1x4) 20Misbah-ul-Haq c Tendulkar b Fernando (1b) 0R Dravid b Smith (16b) 11C White c Fernando b Smith (20b, 3x4, 1x6) 26V Kohli c Takawale b Nehra (1b) 0B Akhil lbw b Smith (4b, 1x4) 5P Kumar run out (Takawale) (11b, 1x4) 8V Kumar c Uthappa b Fernando (17b, 2x4, 1x6) 23A Kumble not out (0b) 0Extras (w 10, nb 1) 11Total (9 wickets; 18 overs) 122FoW: 1-35, 2-36, 3-39, 4-74, 5-76, 6-82, 7-83, 8-122, 9-122Bowling: S Pollock 4-0-23-0, A Nehra 3-0-21-1, D Fernando 4-0-18-4, D Kulkarni 3-0-34-0, D Smith 4-0-26-3Mumbai indiansS Jayasuriya c Akhil b Steyn (37b, 4x4, 4x6) 54S Tendulkar not out (42b, 4x4, 1x6) 40R Uthappa not out (16b, 2x4, 1x6) 19Extras (lb 2, w 11) 13Total (1 wicket; 15.5 overs) 126FoW: 1-96 Bowling: A Kumble 3.5-0-45-0, D Steyn 4-0-14-1, P Kumar 2-0-21-0, R Vinay Kumar 3-0-25-0, B Akhil 3-0-19-0
