Ojha's spell made the difference: Tendulkar

Durban: Mumbai Indians captain Sachin Tendulkar today hailed Deccan Chargers' spinner
Pragyan Ojha, who he believes took away the match from them with his brilliant 3/21 spell.
Ojha weaved his magic with the ball and earned the Man of the Match award by scalping three crucial wickets to restrict the Mumbai Indians 12 runs short off the 169 target, set by the Chargers.

"Yeah, I thought till the 10 overs in the first half we were doing quite well but thereafter we lost a bit of momentum and lost wickets and didn't score enough runs.

"Most of the time we were in control but we lost it in between when Pragyan Ojha came to bowl," said Tendulkar who made useful 36 at the top.

Asked whether the strategy break had anything to do with their momentum loss, Tendulkar, a stern critic of the concept, said, " This has (time out) gone against us, hopefully next time it favours us." He, however, ruled out any possibility of changing the composition of the team for the next match before having a look at the pitch.

"I have to go and look at the wicket before taking any decision but I am quite happy with the way we have approached the game so far."

Asked whether the wash out against Rajasthan Royals had any affect on today's result, he said, "To certain extent because we are all set to play the last match against Rajasthan. I though those five six days in between we didn't get match practice as such. But no excuses, I think in the next match we will be able to put up a good show." Victorious skipper Adam Gilchrist was delighted with the form of his side that finished at the last place in the inaugural edition of the event last year.

The Deccan Chargers this year started their IPL campaign with a bang and are atop the points table with three consecutive wins from as many matches.

"It's a nice start. We picked up a little milestone, we got lot more points than last last year and that's quite pleasing," the former Australian wicket-keeper said.

"It's nice to see the enthusiasm in the group, both among the playing and the non-playing members. The outfit is quite unified and these are encouraging signs," he added.

Player of the Match, Ojha, meanwhile, admitted that he was little nervous while bowling to Tendulkar.

"I was very nervous. I was bowling to the best batsman in the world. I am happy that my team backed me and supported me. They told me that if I put in effort, I can do it and I did it for my team," he said.