Mumbai Indians (MI) registered their second consecutive victory in the season after beating the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Match 9 of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at the M. A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
Rahul Chahar delivered once again with the ball while Hardik Pandya’s fielding brilliance including a couple of direct hits on the field encouraged an impressive comeback into the game and defended their total of 150/5 against SRH. Chasing 150, Jonny Bairstow, who was back in the role of the opener, and David Warner were watchful against the duo of Trent Boult and Jasprit Bumrah in the first two overs. However, Bairstow didn’t hold back for too long, as he hammered 18 runs off the third over, smacking three fours and a six off Boult, bringing his stand and deliver ability into the chase. The right-hander then went after MI debutant Adam Milne and scored 19 off the fourth over, adding two more sixes to the count. SRH made the most out of the powerplay, scoring 57/0 in the 6 overs, with Bairstow striking the ball as clean as anyone else. The right-hander got out in an anticlimactic way – a hit-wicket dismissal that provided MI a breakthrough out of nowhere. MI cleverly capitalised on that Bairstow dismissal and brought Rahul Chahar into the attack. The leg-spinner managed to dismiss Manish Pandey for 2 to bring MI right back into the contest.
SRH were 74/2 at the 10-overs mark as Warner continued playing his shots against the MI spinners before the SRH skipper fell victim to an excellent direct-hit from Hardik Pandya inside the circle that ended his innings of 36. Milne made an impressive comeback and considered only 6 runs in the 14th over as Vijay Shankar and Virat Singh were placed in a tricky situation in the chase. In the next over, Chahar scalped two wickets, dismissing Virat and Abhishek Sharma in the same over, with both batsmen trying to take on the leg-spinner. Shankar brought some hope into the SRH chase after smacking Krunal Pandya for consecutive sixes as Sunrisers required 31 off the final four overs, with Abdul Samad at other end. Bumrah bowled the 17th over and conceded only four runs as SRH tried taking the chase deep. Another bullet-throw from Hardik in the game ended Samad’s innings. With 21 required off the final two, Bumrah got the crucial wicket of Shankar in the penultimate over and Boult castled Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed in the final over that meant SRH were bundled out for 137.
Earlier, MI decided to put runs on the board after winning the toss. The Rohit Sharma-led unit brought in Adam Milne, who was playing his first game of MI, replacing Marco Jansen. Quinton de Kock and Rohit got off to a confident start, smashing three boundaries in the first two overs, with SRH being a little sloppy in the field early on. Spin was introduced early on by SRH to tackle Rohit but the MI skipper counter-attacked with a boundary and a six each off Mujeeb Ur Rahman and later muscled Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s slower delivery for a maximum. de Kock joined the party with some improvisation, playing a scoop over fine leg to Khaleel Ahmed, as the fifty was up for the opening duo at the end of powerplay.
However, Rohit was dismissed in the next over as lack of pace did the trick for Vijay Shankar, giving SRH their first wicket. Suryakumar Yadav, who was the next man in, got off the mark with a stylish boundary. The right-hander followed that with two more crisp-looking shots, especially the one that was lofted inside out, all the way for a maximum before Vijay Shankar took a sharp catch off his own bowling and dismissed the MI batsman. The breakthrough forced de Kock and Ishan Kishan to play out a couple of quiet overs in the middle, with MI placed at 75/2 at the halfway mark.
The duo kept rotating the strike but the SRH spinners didn’t allow them to switch to aggressive mode, forcing de Kock to play an aerial shot off Mujeeb Ur Rahman, straight to the outfielder at mid-wicket and the left-hander was gone for a well-made 40. With four overs to go, SRH continued to bowl with Mujeeb, who was clubbed for a giant 105m six by Kieron Pollard before the SRH spinner got rid of Kishan, thanks to a fine catch by Bairstow behind the stumps. Hardik, who came in at 6, was unable to add the finishing touch after he was caught in the deep by an excellent running catch from Virat Singh in the penultimate over as Khaleel Ahmed scalped his first wicket.
However, Pollard didn’t let SRH get away with their death bowling excellence after the right-handed West Indian batsman tonked the final two deliveries for six, allowing MI to reach the 150 mark and put a competitive total on board.
Kieron Pollard gets the Man of the Match award for his knock of 35* as #MumbaiIndians win by 13 runs against #SRH.#VIVOIPL pic.twitter.com/dlyyog6PIs
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 17, 2021
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