Picture : Twitter / IPL
It was tipped to be close contest between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians but it was the Mumbai Indians who held their nerves to snatch a dramatic 40 run win in a low scoring encounter in Hyderabad.
Sunrisers Hyderabad’s stand in skipper Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the toss and elected to field. And his decision to some extent paid off as they restricted the powerful Mumbai batting line- up to 136 for 7 in their 20 overs.
Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma who is having a below par tournament so far scored 11. Quinton De Kock fell for 19. Suryakumar Yadav ( 7) Ishan Kishan ( 17 ) , Krunal Pandya ( 6) , Hardik Pandya ( 14). Hardik fell when the total was 86/ 6 and when Rahul Chahar fell at 97/ 7 . it looked Mumbai would not last till the 20th over.
But some sloppy fielding , dropped catches and poor death bowling cost SRH dearly and in the end the match. Kieron Pollard was dropped by normally safe Rashid Khan and it was the turning point of the match. Pollard went on to remain unbeaten with a blazing 36 ball 46 . Pollard smashed Siddarth Kaul for three massive sixes in the 19th over that went for 20 runs.
And Bhuvneshwar, who is already having a poor tournament , saw his final over final going for 19 runs with Pollard collecting two fours and a six.
For SRH , the wicket – takers were , Siddarth Kaul 2/ 34 ( 4 overs) Rashid Khan 1/ 27 ( 4 overs) , Mohammad Nabi was brilliant 1/ 13 ( 4 overs) Sandeep Sharma 1/ 20 ( 3 overs) , *Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1/ 34 ( 4 overs) .
Given the opening form of SRH pair of David warner and Jonny Bairstow, it was assumed that SRH would not struggle and would finish the game early as the target was a modest one.
But T20 has its twist in the tale. SRH lost both David Warner ( 15) and Jonny Bairstow ( 16) for the first time within the power play and their brittle middle- order was exposed. Once Warner and Bairstow fell it was game on and Mumbai held the edge. They held their nerves. Rohit Sharma rotated his bowlers well and field placement were spot on. SRH middle order flopped and the scores by their batsmen said it all Vijay Shankar ( 5), Manish Pandey ( 16) , Yusuf Pathan ( 0), Deepak Hooda ( 20) .
SRH batsmen made heavy weather of the run chase and lost wickets regularly. And young West Indian seam bowler Alzzari Joseph made a dream IPL debut with the best bowling figures in IPL history . A superb spell of 6/ 12 in 3. 4 overs . It demolished the SRH batting line- up and stun the home crowd at Hyderabad. Jospeh’s spell beat the previous best bowling record in IPL by Pakistan seamer Sohail Tanvir ( playing for Rajasthan Royals ) , took six for 14 in the inaugural IPL edition in 2008 against Chennai Super Kings at Jaipur .
Other Mumbai bowlers too chipped in Jason Behrendorff 1/ 28 ( 4 0vers) Jasprit Bumrah 1/ 16 ( 3 overs), Rahul Chahar 2/ 21 ( 4 overs)
Josseph’s fiery spell saw SRH crash to a dismal 96 all -out in 17. 5 overs. It handed Mumbai an unlikely victory by 40 runs. Bhuvneshwar the bowler is struggling to take wickets and now with franchise asking him to lead has added more pressure on him . It is showing on the field . Bhuvi does not have captaincy experience. If Kane Williamson is not around it makes sense to ask Warner to lead rather than Bhuvi.
