IPL 9, Match 37 MI v SRH Review: Clinical SRH outclass MI

The Mumbai Indians locked horns with the Sunrisers Hyderabad at their new home venue the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium, Visakhapatnam. It was a crucial encounter considering the stage of the match as the result would have swapped places from top four to the bottom four. Both teams had come up from convincing victories and wanted to consolidate on the winning momentum.

A total batting collapse by Mumbai Indians saw the Sunrisers emerge on top. Earlier, the SRH were driven to a decent total anchored by Shikhar Dhawan’s well-paced knock and assisted by cameos by David Warner and Yuvraj Singh.

Earlier in the day, Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to field first. The Sunrisers Hyderabad openers Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner continued their dominion at the top and put on 51 in the powerplay. Warner, as has been the trend, played the role of the aggressor and Dhawan played the supporting role. The duo put on 85 runs for the first wicket in 59 balls before Warner was caught by Kieron Pollard off the bowling of Harbhajan Singh. Warner scored 48 off 33 balls with 7 fours and a six.

Kane Williamson couldn’t stay long at the crease as Harbhajan got rid of him in the 12th over. A brilliant catch from Rohit Sharma diving forward dismissed the Kiwi. Yuvraj Singh joined Dhawan at the crease. Yuvraj Singh showed shades of vintage Yuvraj as he hit shots over mid-wicket. Dhawan brought up yet another half century in the 16th over and stepped on the accelerator.

The two Indian nationals put on 85 runs off just 49 balls. It was the last over when Yuvraj backed away a little too much, facing Mitch McClenaghan, and hit his own stumps with the bat to be dismissed hit wicket on 39. His knock came in just 23 balls with 2 sixes and 3 fours. By the end of the 20 overs, Shikhar Dhawan carried his bat through the innings with an unbeaten 82 off 57 balls to take Sunrisers total to 177/3. He struck 10 boundaries and a solitary maximum.

The Mumbai Indians run chase began in tatters with Parthiv Patel dismissed on a duck in the very first over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The in-form batsman for Mumbai, Rohit Sharma was cleaned up on the first ball of the second over by Ashish Nehra. Krunal Pandya hit an elegant six down the ground, perhaps the only highlight in the powerplay for Mumbai Indians.

Ambati Rayudu got a good short ball from Nehra and he handed a simple catch to Kane Williamson. In walked Jos Buttler, only to give Nehra his 3rd wicket as he edged one in to the gloves of Naman Ojha. Krunal Pandya was done by extra bounce by Barinder Sran and his wicket meant half the side back in the hut before the powerplay ended.

Mumbai scored 32/5 in the powerplay. With two new batsmen at the crease, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard, the task was to rebuild the innings. Their stay at the crease, too, wasn’t a comfortable one. They put on 19 off 26 for the 6th wicket before Kieron Pollard was caught in the deep off the bowling of Moises Henriques. Pollard scored 11 off 13 during his stay at the crease. Hardik Pandya followed soon but was unlucky to be given caught behind off the bowling of Mustafizur Rahman.

No other batsman could show any resilience either, though they delayed the inevitable till the 17th over. Harbhajan remained unbeaten on 21 as Jasprit Bumrah became the last man to be dismissed. Nehra and Mustafizur picked up 3 wickets each and Barinder Sran scalped 2. Sunrisers Hyderabad won the match by 85 runs and moved to the top of the points table.

Brief Scores

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 177/3 in 20 overs (Dhawan 82, Harbhajan Singh 2/29)

Mumbai Indians: 92/10 in 16.3 overs (Harbhajan 21*, Nehra 3/15)

Man of the Match: Ashish Nehra