Llorne Howell - Sports blogger Former cricket international for the Black Caps, Llorne Howell, gives his views on New Zealand's number one summer sport, both for the Bay and the national team.

I was fortunate enough to attend the IPL semi between Mumbai and Bangalore in Navi Mumbai.
As I was with a NZ Cricket Board member I also watched the entire match from the VVIP area. They have VIP and VVIP here.
In front of us was Sachin Tendulkar's son. Close by was the man of the IPL Lalit Modi and the owner of the Mumbai Indians Mukesh Ambani. Ambani is finishing off a US$2 billion dollar home in Mumbai of 27 floors.

The match itself was intensely contested.
The Indians looked like they would only manage a score of 150-160 as Bangalore bowled well with Steyn and Kumble performing well.
Tiwari and then Pollard changed the match.
Pollard came in, in the 17th over and hit fours big sixes plus fours and helped lift Mumbai into the 180s. The wicket was slow and stopping with a tennis ball bounce so it was a formidable total. Pollard somehow hit low full tosses clear over the fielders to dominate the scoring at the end. Often guys can't seem to hit full tosses consistently for six, but Pollard has the striking power to do it.
The Bangalore side looked in good shape with Rahul Dravid playing very well after Kallis had gone early nicking Malinga behind. Utappa also played extremely well for a short period.
At three down, and looking like they had a great base to charge in the last 10 needing 10s Ross Taylor came to the wicket.
Unfortunately early on he called Dravid through for a run from a shot to backward point. Dravid did not want to run and was run out at the bowlers end by a mile. You could feel the anger coming off Dravid. It really set the Challengers back as they had to regroup and then lost another wicket, all slowing the scoring down.
Regular wickets then followed as Malinga was brought back into the attack and the Royal Challengers ended up well short.
The highlight of the occasion was being in the Mumbai area with the Mumbai Indian owners, close friends and IPL commissioner Modi. Modi is under some scrutiny from the BCCI. Going into the bar and food lounge he was having some serious discussions with some very powerful people away from the cameras' eyes.
It looked pretty full on so I opted to stay out on the viewing area to enjoy the cricket.
Mumbai are a very good side and in this match Tendulkar did not score heavily. He is likely to turn this around in the final and the opposition will also have the rest of the Mumbai team to worry about.