Mumbai Indians surged into the top three of the Indian Premier League standings on Wednesday with a dominant seven-wicket victory over Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Rohit Sharma, stepping up as an impact player, smashed his second consecutive half-century, scoring 70 runs to lead Mumbai to 146-3 in just 15.4 overs. The five-time champions, who had a slow start to the season, have now climbed to third place in the points table.
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Heinrich Klaasen’s 71 off 44 balls had earlier saved Hyderabad from complete destruction to score 143-8 with new ball bowlers Trent Boult (4-26) and Deepak Chahar (2-12) doing the most damage.
It’s a remarkable turnaround for Mumbai, which won only one of its first five games before bouncing back with four straight wins. Hyderabad is at No. 9, just ahead of last-place Chennai Super Kings.
Sharma sets sixes record
Sharma had a quiet start to the season with a top-score of 26 in his first six games. But the seasoned T20 batter got back into his groove when he smacked unbeaten 76 against Chennai at home three days ago.
Sharma continued where he left off and despite the slowness of the wicket he smacked three sixes and eight fours in his fluent half-century. Sharma also became the highest six hitter for Mumbai with 259 sixes and surpassed Kieron Pollard’s Mumbai record of 258.
Ryan Rickelton (11) yet again couldn’t capitalize on a good start and offered a one-handed return catch to Jaydev Unadkat, who had replaced struggling Mohammed Shami in Hyderabad’s playing XI.
Sharma then shared two half-century stands with Will Jacks (22) and Yadav before chipping a regulation catch at mid-wicket when Mumbai was just 14 runs away from victory.
Yadav summed up a dismal night for Hyderabad when the ball burst through the hands of Nitesh Kumar Reddy at deep mid-wicket for a four as the fielder seemed to have lost the ball in the floodlights and it crossed the ropes.
“Glad the boys are taking the momentum in the right way,” Mumbai skipper Hardik Pandya said. “I’ve felt, once everyone starts clicking in this team there will be domination. ... Overall, a wonderful win.”
Boult subdues Hyderabad
Hyderabad’s top-order had showed early sparks in the tournament when it not only racked up 286 against Rajasthan Royals in its opening game but also chased down 246 against Punjab Kings at home last week.
Other than those two bright moments, Hyderabad batters had mostly struggled this season.
Head fell for a four-ball duck when he top-edged Boult’s length delivery outside the off stump and Abhishek Sharma was caught at cover point when he got deceived by left-armer’s slow knuckle ball.
In between those two wickets, Chahar had removed Ishan Kishan in a bizarre fashion. On-field umpire first declared Chahar’s leg-side delivery a wide but changed his decision and lifted his finger when he saw Kishan walking back. However, Ultra edge later showed on television that the ball had missed the bat as Kishan got strangled for the second time this season.
Klaasen revived the innings by combining in a 99-run stand with Abhinav Manohar (43) off 63 balls before Jasprit Bumrah completed 300 wickets in T20 cricket when Klaasen missed out the low full toss and was caught at deep mid-wicket in the penultimate over.
Boult, who had removed openers Travis Head for nought and Abhishek Sharma for eight in his opening spell, bagged two more wickets in the last over when Manohar got hit wicket and then clean bowled captain Pat Cummins with a perfect yorker.
“Never got going,” Hyderabad captain Pat Cummins said. “After a couple of wickets, you have to find a way to steady the ship, (but) couldn’t do that.”