Captain Hardik Pandya’s pace and veteran leggie Piyush Chawla’s craft put brakes on a sensational Sunrisers Hyderabad batting line-up. Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma’s scintillating display with the willow then gave Mumbai Indians a rare win in the Indian Premier League 2024.
Riding on Suryakumar’s 51-ball hundred and his unbroken third-wicket association of 143 off just 79 balls with Tilak – the third highest partnership of the season, Mumbai Indians overhauled the target of 174 with 16 balls to spare.
As it happened: MI beat SRH by seven wickets
When Tilak took guard in the fifth over, however, Mumbai Indians was in a spot of bother. With the Sunrisers pace battery having reduced the home team to 31 for three, Mumbai Indians was in danger of letting the bowlers’ good work down the drain yet again with another poor show by the top-order.
Ishan Kishan (straightened up by Marco Jansen to be caught in slips), Rohit Sharma (miscued a pull off Cummins) and Naman Dhir (slashed Bhuvneshwar to point) could not withstand the wrath. Even Suryakumar struggled against Cummins, failing to put a bat to any of his first three deliveries that swung away from his blade.
But in the seventh over, Suryakumar changed the complexion by taking on Marco Jansen. In what turned out to be a 22-run over, Suryakumar swung Jansen over fine-leg fence twice with his trademark behind-the-wicket innovations. Then on, Tilak played a perfect fiddle as Suryakumar continued to torment the Sunrisers attack.
Had it not been for Chawla and Hardik’s partnership with the ball, MI would have been chasing a stiffer target. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini/The Hindu
He even settled the score with Cummins with three consecutive pull shots in the 17th over that brought MI on the cusp of a win and himself on the cusp of a hundred. He achieved both the milestones in the next over with the next ball he faced, lofting S. Natarajan over long-off for a six.
Had it not been for Chawla and Hardik’s partnership with the ball, MI would have been chasing a stiffer target.
The duo picked three crucial wickets – of Travis Head, Nitish KumarReddy and Heirich Klaasen – for just six runs in 11 balls to derail SRH from 90 for two to 96 for five. The duo shared another three scalps in the 16th and 17th overs to put MI on top before Cummins’ cameo helped SRH cross the 170-run mark.
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