IPL 10, Match 48, Who Said What - Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Mumbai Indians

The Mumbai Indians having qualified for the playoffs travelled all the way to Hyderabad to play the Sunrisers Hyderabad but it proved to be that game Mumbai would like to forget as soon as possible. Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat first on a slow RGIS pitch. SRH brought in Mohammad Nabi for Kane Williamson and he had an immediate impact picking the big wicket of Lendl Simmons.

MI could never quite recover from the early breakthroughs and the team full of power hitters couldn’t get their shots going on a wicket where the ball slowed down before coming onto the bat. Siddharth Kaul chipped in with two quick wickets and MI were on the back foot. Rohit scored 67 from 45 he was the only substantial contributor along with Parthiv Patel who got 23 runs.

Purple cap holder Bhuvneshwar Kumar also got a couple of wickets, in the end, to ensure there was no late charge in the inning. Walking out to chase 139 Sunrisers Hyderabad lost the skipper David Warner early as Mitchell McClenaghan surprised him with a full delivery that struck him on the pads. But it was too easy a chase in too important a game for them to give it away.

Shikhar Dhawan and Moises Henriques stitched together an important partnership adding 91 runs for the second wicket before the latter departed for 44. Dhawan stayed on and saw the team through also completing his half century, the 3rd this season on the day he was selected in the Indian team for the Champions Trophy.

He was unbeaten on 62 off 46 balls a much patient knock from the left-hander who loves to dash his knocks with flamboyance. The inning also won him his 1st Man of the Match award representing SRH in the IPL.

Dhawan said: I was very happy that my name got into the Champions Trophy squad. Davy got out early and I knew that I had to stay out and take the team home. I have been feeling good, I was working on my technique and my consistency. All the work I put in with my love and heart is paying off now.

This win keeps the Sunrisers in the hunt for the playoffs berth and they now have 15 points after 13 matches with a healthy Net Run Rate. The skipper would be pleased that the team got home comfortably despite a minimum contribution from him with the bat.

David Warner said: It did go to plan. Credit to the bowlers, they bowled well with the pace a bit on the slower side. Rashid Khan, Nabi and Bhuvi finished it off for us. Dhawan then took us home along with Moises. We thought we could shut out one side of the ground with the big boundaries and that is why we got Nabi on to bowl early. We built pressure, did not let them set in and fortunately got quick ones in the bag. We have to win the next game, last year we had to win three in a row to qualify. We are treating each one as a knockout and are looking forward to the next. A big thank you to our fans for turning out for us all through.

It was an off day for Mumbai who have otherwise been ramping in the tournament. This is just their third defeat and would want to brush it off and get back in form before the business end of the tournament.

Rohit Sharma said: (Pointing out the reason for the defeat) The batting. Not enough runs on the board. 138 was too less on that wicket. SRH bowled really well. They stuck to their plans and kept us guessing all the way through. We just wanted to try. We haven’t batted (first) much. We just wanted to try something different and it didn’t pay off. We have two more games left. We need to regroup as soon as we can and try to turn it around. Batting second was so much easier. If you don’t take wickets, it’s always going to be hard. Shikhar batted really well. It’s a great eye-opener as to what we need to do when we bat first. Toss is in nobody’s hand. We could be put to bat first. Today was a great lesson for us.