Warner leads from the front for Sunrisers’ first win

Chasing a modest target of 143, the home team saw Dhawan bowled off the fifth ball of the innings from Tim Southee. But Warner and Moises Henriques put on 62 runs for the second wicket off 57 balls which effectively pushed Mumbai out of the game.

David Warner was in devastating form, hitting the Mumbai Indians' bowlers all over the park.

There was another Shikhar Dhawan failure at the top. But his captain David Warner brushed it aside to score a brilliant, unbeaten 90 (59b, 7 x 4, 4 x 6) to pilot Sunrisers Hyderabad to an emphatic, seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium here on Monday night.

Chasing a modest target of 143, the home team saw Dhawan bowled off the fifth ball of the innings from Tim Southee. But Warner and Moises Henriques put on 62 runs for the second wicket off 57 balls which effectively pushed Mumbai out of the game.

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Defending low targets, the bowlers look for special efforts in the field. But Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma failed in his attempt to pull off what could have been a brilliant catch at mid-off when his diving effort saw Warner get a reprieve on 17 after being deceived in pace by Tim Southee.

And Warner didn’t look back after that and went on to play his typical extravagant, powerful strokes all-round the wicket and anchored the innings splendidly to guide his team to a thoroughly deserving win — Sunrisers’ first in three matches.

On a pitch which offered little to the bowlers, defending a low target was an uphill task even for such a varied Mumbai attack though Tim Southee was exceptional.

Rayudu, Krunal shine

Earlier, Mumbai, put in to bat, posted a respectable total largely thanks to a responsible half-century by Ambati Rayudu (54, 49b, 3 x4, 2 x 6) and a belligerent knock by Krunal Pandey (49 not out, 28b, 3 x4, 3 x 6).

Opener Martin Guptill, who came in for indisposed Kieron Pollard, disappointed when he was squared up and forced to snick a perfect length ball on off-stump from Bhuvneshwar Kumar to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha — the fourth ball of the innings.

Southpaw Parthiv Patel was throwing his bat at everything before left-armer Barinder Sran cleaned him up when he went for another ambitious stroke.

Then, Mumbai suffered a big blow when captain Rohit Sharma was run out trying to steal a non-existent single after pushing one to covers. At 43 for three in 7.1 overs, Mumbai was in deep trouble and managed to score only 58 for three at the end of the first 10 overs.

Sran soon sent back Jos Buttler, playing a harmless delivery on leg-stump into a diving wicketkeeper’s hands leaving Mumbai innings in a fix at 60 for four after 10.4 overs.

Crucial stand

Then, the 25-year-old, southpaw Krunal Pandey joined the more experienced and well-set Rayudu to essay some big hits especially off left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma. He hit the spinner for three consecutive sixes in his fourth over which was also the most expensive (26 runs).

Rayudu and Krunal put on 63 runs for the fifth wicket off 39 balls which gave them a chance to compete for honours. The latter made most of the difficult chance floored by Shikhar Dhawan in the deep off Bipul Sharma when he was on five, going for a big heave.

Bhuvneshwar was outstanding conceding just 17 runs while Sran was the most successful bowler picking three wickets.