The semifinal door had already been slammed on them but Mumbai Indians at least had the consolation of signing off with a win as they spanked Bangalore Royal Challengers by nine wickets in an inconsequential rain-truncated match in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Chasing 123 to win from 18 overs, the Mumbai side cruised to 126 for one in 16 overs with Sanath Jayasuriya (54) and Sachin Tendulkar (40 not out) scoring bulk of the runs.
Earlier, Dilhara Fernando (4-18) mowed down the Bangalore top order while Dwayne Smith (3-26) wrecked the middle as Mumbai Indians restricted the hosts to a meagre 122 for nine in 18 overs.
Chasing 123, Jayasuriya and Tendulkar decided to wrap it up early and the Sri Lankan especially went berserk.
Jayasuriya smote Praveen Kumar for a massive six in the third over before tormenting R Vinay Kumar, who was hit for two successive sixes, followed by a boundary in the action-packed eighth over.
Anil Kumble could not escape Jayasuriya's wrath either as the left-hander first hit the spinner for back-to-back fours and then hit him for his 31st six of the tournament.
Dale Steyn finally halted the rampaging Sri Lankan in the 12th over when Jayasuriya was caught at sweeper cover.
The damage, however, had already been done and Jayasuriya not only featured in a 96-run opening stand but also dominated it with his scintillating strokeplay en route to a 37-ball blitzkrieg that included fours boundaries and as many sixes.
Tendulkar, on his part, mixed caution with aggression during his 42-ball unbeaten stay which yielded 40 runs with the help of four fours and a six.
Tendulkar swept Anil Kumble for two successive fours to seal the match.
Robin Uthappa remained unbeaten on 19.
Earlier put into bat in the rain-curtailed match, the Rahul Dravid-led Bangalore Royal Challengers got off to a decent start with Mark Boucher (18) and Sreevats Goswami (20) putting together 35 runs before first change bowler Fernando dealt double blows in the sixth over.
The strapping Sri Lankan drew first blood by removing Boucher and three balls later, Misbah-ul-Haq (0) was on his way back to pavilion after yet another misadventure.
In his next over, Goswami became Fernando's third victim and then it was Smith's turn to join the party.
The West Indian removed Cameron White (26) just when the Australian youngster looked threatening, while Virat Kohli (0) fell to Ashish Nehra, as the hosts lost their top half with 76 runs on the board in the 13th over.
Wickets kept tumbling with Smith removing Rahul Dravid (11) and B Akhil (5) in the 14th over and Praveen Kumar (8) was run out in the last ball of the innings.
The hosts owed it to R Vinay Kumar's handy 23 off 17 balls as they crawled past the 100-mark.
