Tendulkar: It's a huge relief

Mumbai captain Sachin Tendulkar admitted he was relieved his team would progress to the semi-finals of the IPL for the first time.

Mumbai booked a semi-finals berth in the IPL III, following their convincing 37-run win over Jaipur.
Man of the match Tendulkar smashed an unbeaten 89 and shared in half-century partnerships with Jean-Paul Duminy and Kieron Pollard as Mumbai recovered from a poor start to reach a solid 174 for five.
In reply, Jaipur stumbled at the start, lost wickets regularly and were eventually restricted to 137 for eight leaving their chances of going through to the last four in jeopardy.
Mumbai, the costliest franchise in the eight-team fray, failed to secure a semi-final berth in the first two editions, but have been front-runners throughout the current season.
"It's a huge relief because the first year it went down to our final game at this very ground and we eventually missed out," Tendulkar said.
"Today we have secured a semi-final berth at the same ground, so it's a great feeling."
Tendulkar was pleased with the way his team performed.
"We needed a solid performance and I thought the total we achieved was a competitive one," he said.
"Full marks to the way our fast bowlers performed upfront especially Zaheer (Khan) who turned in a terrific first spell.
"Although we were 116 for five at the start of the 16th over, I believed it was just a matter of a couple of big overs for us to turn it around.
"My own target was to stay until the end and that put a lot of responsibility on me and Duminy.
"Overall the fielding was good, we managed some important run-outs and some good catches.
"When all these aspects come together, you obviously end up winning."
Tendulkar has been the corner stone of Mumbai's success and with his half-century in  Jaipur, the captain overtook Jacques Kallis to become the leading run-getter in the tournament.
Mumbai never lost a match in which Tendulkar has scored a half-century and he said: "I just have to ensure I keep scoring 50s.
"As for our semi-finals opponents, it does not matter who they are as long as I score a 50 and we win."
Meanwhile, Jaipur captain Shane Warne said dropping Sachin Tendulkar's catch proved to be the turning point of the match.

"Dropping Sachin's (Tendulkar) catch hurt us costly because he went on to score the runs. We also responded poorly in the bowling and fielding department after the missed chance," Warne said.

It was Aditya Dole who dropped the Master Balster's catch when he was on 45, off Siddharth Trivedi's bowling.

Tendulkar then went on to make a 59-ball unbeaten 89.