Ordinary performance by SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) middle-order batsmen consigned them to their third successive loss in this year’s Indian Premier League (IPL) as Mumbai Indians (MI) put up a spirited effort in the field to defend 150/5, winning the match by 13 runs.
This was the third successive time SRH lost a match after looking like they would race to the target after having got a good start.
SRH had earlier messed up the chase against Kolkata Knight Riders in the opening encounter and then lost their next match to Royal Challengers Bangalore.
On Saturday, after a 67-run opening wicket partnership between Jonny Bairstow (43 off 22 balls) and David Warner (36 off 24 balls), they lost track.
While both Bairstow and Warner were unlucky with the former getting out hit wicket and the latter being run out by a direct hit from Hardik Pandya, the batsmen who came in after them threw their wickets away to leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (3/19 in four overs).
SRH’s No. 3 batsman Manish Pandey fell for two as he was caught trying to attempt a big shot against Chahar.
Soon after that, Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma, who were drafted in to the playing XI for the first time this season, holed out to fielders in the deep while trying to attempt big shots when there was no need to play risky shots.
Soon SRH were five down for 104 in 14.5 overs. While all-rounder Vijay Shankar (28 off 25 balls), who had earlier impressed with the ball, tried to keep them in the game with Abdul Samad, another brilliant run-out from Hardik sent back.
Shankar tried hard but MI’s Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult were just too good to get away in the final overs. Shankar fell to Bumrah.
Earlier, SRH had restricted MI’s strong batting line-up to 150 for five in 20 overs.
Opting to bat after winning the toss, MI began well with both Rohit Sharma (32 off 25 balls) and Quinton de Kock (40 off 39 balls) adding 55 for the first wicket in 6.3 overs.
However, Shankar chipped in with two wickets to stall the MI batting which could never recover from there.
Shankar picked the wickets of Sharma and No. 3 Suryakumar Yadav (10 off 6 balls).
Off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman then took two wickets, removing de Kock and the dangerous Ishan Kishan, who was caught brilliantly by Jonny Bairstow, to leave MI struggling at 114/4 in the 17th over.
The middle overs had proved to be difficult for MI as they struggled against the SRH bowling.
A few lusty blows from Kieron Pollard (35 off 22 balls), including taking 17 off the last over bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar helped MI to get to a competitive 150 which proved to be enough.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 150/5 in 20 overs (Q de Kock 40, R Sharma 32, V Shankar 2/19, M Rahman 2/29) vs SunRisers Hyderabad 137 all out in 19.4 overs (J Bairstow 43, D Warner 36, V Shankar 28, R Chahar 3/19, T Boult 3/28)
