The Sunrisers Hyderabad suffered their first defeat of the IPL season as the Mumbai Indians defeated them by four wickets.
The Mumbai Indians put in their best performance of the season so far as they defeated the champions, to claim their second victory out of three matches in front of the partisan crowd. They kept their unbeaten record at home to the Sunrisers, and went up 5-4 in their head-to-head record overall.
It was always going to be a tough task for the visitors, who could only muster 158-8 from their allotted overs. Only three matches had been won from 26 matches, batting first going into the clash. It was a stat that was backed up by Rohit Sharma’s decision to bowl first after winning the toss.
The Sunrisers were looking good after the first 10 overs as the explosive David Warner, and to a lesser extent Shikhar Dhawan, put on 75 runs in this period. Warner hit an excellent reverse slog sweep for six off the first ball of the 11th over, but it all fell apart from that moment on.
Harbhajan Singh (2-23) took the wicket of Warner for 49 with the very next ball as he attempted the same shot. He still earned the Orange Cap for his efforts, though. Deepak Hooda could only add a run-a-ball nine, as the Sunrisers’ top order started to collapse.
Dhawan fell two runs short of his half-century and Yuvraj Singh was bowled by Hardik Pandya for five, as a strong finish to the innings was taken out of the equation.
Ben Cutting struck four fours from his 10 deliveries to score a brisk 20, but Jasprit Bumrah (3-24) stifled the tail to restrict the Sunrisers to 158-8.
The hosts got off to a flier, thanks to Jos Buttler and Parthiv Patel as they struck 28 off the first three overs, but Buttler attempted to charge down to experienced paceman Ashish Nehra and was clean-bowled for 14. Sharma was then trapped lbw by the excellent young Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan for four.
An impressive stand followed between Patel and Nitish Rana as they hit a quick 38 off the next five overs to keep the Mumbai Indians afloat. Patel departed for 39 off 27 and Kieron Pollard only added 11 to keep Hyderabad interested, but Rana kept pushing on.
Rana struck two sixes and three fours, and by the time he was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar for 45, the damage was already done. Krunal Pandya had his say in the matter too, blasting three sixes on his way to 37 off 20 balls.
Hardik Pandya and Singh chipped away at the remaining runs needed to pull off the victory with eight balls remaining.
Photo: Vipin Pawar/IPL/Cricinfo
