IPL 2018: Match 7, SRH vs MI, Review: Sunrisers prevail in the last ball thriller; MI lose yet again

Indian Premier League (IPL) continues to impress as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and Mumbai Indians (MI) produced yet another thriller only for the home side to win it by 1 wicket. Once again the match was set up by the clever bowlers Siddarth Kaul and Rashid Khan who used their variations well to restrict the visitors to a low total. Though the youngster Mayank Markande once again bowled well to pick 4 wickets in his spell. However, the match was eventually finished off the last delivery with Billy Stanlake hitting one in the air to win the game.

The hosts’ skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to field as they had to deal with the blow of an injury to Bhuvneshwar Kumar who had a sore back. They included Sandeep Sharma in the side to replace their best bowler. Their opponents Mumbai also made two changes to their line-up as they picked Pradeep Sangwan and Ben Cutting in the playing XI.

Kaul stuns the visitors

The opening duo of Rohit Sharma and Evin Lewis strode out to the middle but the former’s poor run continued as he was scalped by Billy Stanlake. His partner though threw hands at every ball and churned out some quick runs in the powerplay overs. But Siddarth Kaul continued to raise his standards as a bowler by castling him with a cleverly used knuckle ball. He also picked a wicket of Ishan Kishan who was swinging at every delivery surprisingly unlike his last innings when he took time to get his eye in.

However, the huge wicket of Krunal Pandya was taken by Shakib Al Hasan who closed the face of the bat a bit too early to a ball which was tossed up and outside off only to get a leading edge straight to Williamson at cover. Then Kieron Pollard and Suryakumar Yadav joined hands to resurrect the innings and to some extent were successful in it as well. The former was in the mood on the day who used his feet cleverly against the likes of Shakib and Rashid Khan.

Mumbai fail to press on

Pollard’s wicket proved to be crucial in the context of the match courtesy Billy Stanlake. The death bowlers in the absence of Bhuvi did extremely well as they were too good for the lower order of the visitors. Eventually, MI posted a middling total of 147 runs for the loss of 8 wickets and could only muster 37 runs in the last 5 overs. Once again, only 5 bowlers were used by SRH as all of them were amongst the wickets along with being economical as well.

Chase starts with a bang

Sunrisers Hyderabad once again got off to a brilliant start with Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha playing their shots. Though the latter was dropped in the very second over as he made full use of the let off. The likes of Pradeep Sangwan and Jasprit Bumrah went for runs in the powerplay as Dhawan whacked the ball with full power all along the ground. He took toll of some wide bowling and raced past 50 runs in the first 6 overs.

Markande weaves his magic

While it felt like the match would get over soon, but the clever use of DRS from the skipper Rohit Sharma brought MI in the game. Saha was the first to go who failed to pick the quicker googly of Mayank Markande which was pitched short. He took an evasive action after leaving his crease which led to the ball hitting the pad and was eventually hitting the stumps on review. Soon, in the next over, Williamson missed the cut shot as the ball was caught by Ishan Kishan and he was the only one to go up animatedly.

He insisted the skipper to take the review and amazingly there was a nick to send back the opposition counterpart to the hut. Markande took care of Dhawan and Manish Pandey who played poor strokes against the youngster taking him lightly. The 20-year-old didn’t stop here as Shakib chopped the shortish googly from him back on to his stumps to make the game more interesting.

MI try hard but in vain

With required run rate under 6, the Baroda duo of Yusuf Pathan and Deepak Hooda played sensibly without taking much risk and took the game deep. But the former played a poor shot in the 18th over off Bumrah as Rashid followed him on the very next delivery. Mustafizur once again bowled a key 19th over once again and rolled his fingers over the ball beautifully. He kept the batsmen on their toes and also picked two wickets conceding only 1 run leaving 11 runs for the last over.

Ben Cutting was entrusted to bowl the last over. However, Deepak Hooda smashed a blazing six off the first ball to bring it down to 5 of 5. The action went down to the wire until the last ball with Billy Stanlake on strike as only a solitary run was needed. The batsman fearlessly smashed the ball over the infield as celebrations started in the Stadium and in Hyderabad camp. But it was one heck of a game and credit to Mumbai for taking it to the last delivery.

Sunrisers have now won both their matches playing in their den as the defending champions have got off to a little rusty start to their campaign.

Here’s what VVS Laxman tweeted

Got too close to comfort in the end but that was T20 Cricket at its best. The bowlers did an excellent job in restricting MI to 147 & in the end Hooda held his nerve under pressure.Special mention to young Markande,looks a promising prospect. #OrangeArmy is a happy army #SRHvMI

— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) April 12, 2018

Brief Scores

Mumbai Indians 147/8 after 20 overs (E Lewis 29; S Sharma 2/25, S Kaul 2/29, R Khan 1/13)

Sunrisers Hyderabad 148/9 after 20 overs (S Dhawan 45, D Hooda 32*; M Markande 4/23, 3/24)

Result: Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 1 wicket

Man of the Match: Rashid Khan