Defending a total of 166 for eight, Mumbai Indians made early inroads which proved decisive in the end as Royals were restricted to 152 for seven. It was the last game for MI at the 'Fort Wankhede' which hasn't been breached by any team this season.
The win took Mumbai to 22 points from 15 games but they pipped CSK to the top of the table by virtue of better run-rate.
Stuart Binny (37 no) and Brad Hodge (39, 7x4) added 56 runs for the seventh wicket after they were reduced to 58 for five within the first 10 overs.
23 runs off a final over from Lasith Malinga was a Herculean task and the script unfolded as the home team would have expected.
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Chasing a target of 167, Royals got to the worst possible start as they lost four wickets in the first five overs with only 28 on the board.
James Faulkner (11) and Ajinkya Rahane (4) played poor shots to back of the length deliveries from Kulkarni while Sanju Samson was done in by pace and bounce from Johnson.
Shane Watson (19), who had some verbal exchanges with Kieron Pollard pulled Malinga for a couple of sixes but played a rank bad shot off a Pragyan Ojha delivery. It was Pollard who caught Watson in the deep and then gave him a 'Calypso style' send-off.
Veteran Hodge got four boundaries off Ojha in the 16th over to bring down the equation but that wasn't enough in the end.