Mumbai indians players celebrate a Sunrisers Hyderabad wicket in Sharjah on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians have now pulled two wins out of two matches, and their third of the season, after the four-time champions defended 209 runs against SunRisers Hyderabad at the high-scoring Sharjah Cricket Ground on Sunday.
Chasing the huge target, SRH skipper David Warne (60 runs off 44 balls) created the platform for the side but inability of other batsmen to stick to the other end saw the team fall short by 34 runs.
Credit must go to the likes of Jasprit Bumrah(41/2), Trent Boult (28/2) and James Pattinson (29/2), who picked six wickets among each other to take the steam off the SRH run chase to restrict SRH at 172/7. Earlier in the first innings, Quinto de Kock was back among runs with a classic 39-ball 67 knock, and was duly supported by some pyrotechnics of Hardik Pandya (28 off 19), Kieron Pollard (25 off 13) and Krunal Pandya (20 off 4) down the order to cross the 200-mark.
Chasing 209, Jonny Bairstow (25 off 15) did the initial hitting while David Warner struggled to find his footing in the 34-run stand. The Englishman fell at the beginning of the fifth over when he failed to read a slow delivery by Trent Boult; miscuing it straight to Hardik on square leg.
In at no.3 Manish Pandey didn’t take time to adjust and smashed two quick boundaries with the powerplay eventually fetching 56 runs.
Warner too got back into the groove as the 34-ball 60 run stand saw the team close on 100 at the halfway mark. However, Pandey’s (30 off 19) decision to slog James Pattinson could only find Keiron Polland at long on, leaving SRH at 94/2 at the end of 10 overs.
Boult then removed Kane Williamson (3) next to while Warner seemed eager to clobber the ball around the park; completing his half century in the process.
But the SRH skipper was struggling to find a partner from the other end as last-match hero Priyam Garg (8) was next to flop on the day. SRH dugout seemed worried as the side was struggling at 130/4 with less than six overs to go.
The pressure soon got to him as Warner suddenly looked out of his element and end up playing an uncharacteristic shot of a slow delivery Pattinson, taken spectacularly by Ishan Kishan at gully.
Asked to chase 66 of the last four overs, the lower order never looked up for the task against an experienced MI bowling.
Earlier in first ininngs, the swashbuckling duo of Hardika Pandya (28) and Kieron Pollard (25 not out) scored at their usual brisk pace but it was Krunal Pandya who propelled MI past 200 with 20 runs off a mere four deliveries in the last over.
Rohit Sharma plonked Sandeep Sharma over mid-wicket for a six to start the proceedings but the MI skipper was out caught behind the very next ball as he chased a wide delivery, only to nick it to Jonny Bairstow.
Suryakumar struck six boundaries, including a couple of pleasing drives, in his 18-ball 27 before being dismissed by Siddarth Kaul, who has been picked for this game in place of Khaleel Ahmed.
At the other end, Quinton de Kock worked the ball around nicely in between playing the big shots, as Mumbai Indians maintained a healthy run rate and looked on a course for a competitive total.
After 10 overs, MI were 91 for two with de Kock looking in fine touch at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
The seasoned South African, who reached his half-century with a six straight over the bowler's head, got out after Rashid Khan took a fine running catch off his own bowling to signal the arrival of Hardik.
Manish Pandey, who had dropped one earlier in the day, made up for that with a sensational catch to send back Ishan Kishan for a 23-ball 31.
Pollard and Hardik then did what they do best even though the likes of T Natarajan bowled quite a few yorkers.
