Mumbai Indians found the nuts and bolts to design a third successive victory – and a good one at that – to climb closer to the top half of the table after a 14-run conquest of hosts Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Tuesday night. There was little that the visiting side did wrong.
Indeed, Mumbai Indians ticked a lot of boxes. Cameron Green (64, 40 balls) and Tilak Varma (37) made the most of the blazing start given by skipper Rohit Sharma (28) and Ishan Kishan (38) to ensure that the side scored at 9.6 runs an over after being asked to bat. They then coped with the pressure brought to bear on the side by Heinrich Klassen (36 off 16).
With just two wins from five games so far, Sunrisers Hyderabad are in a joust in the bottom half of the league with Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore, only a rung above the win-less Delhi Capitals.
Green finds his feet
Nobody doubted the 23-year-old Green’s class even when he made only 35 runs in the first four matches, including a couple of unbeaten knocks. But the man with a Test hundred under his belt expressed himself superbly to reveal that the high expectations from him and the backing from the team management were all justified.
He played himself in, chugging along at a strike rate of just over 100 in the first half of his 40-ball effort, before tripling his score in the second half with some delectable strokes. He took the confidence from the knock to his bowling in the second half of the match, but it was the final flourish with the bat that impressed everyone.
Varma takes on gamechanger mantle
Meanwhile, Varma continued to find scoring opportunities, making another useful contribution to his side’s rise up the league table after a dismal start. Walking in at 95 for 3 at the fall of Suryakumar Yadav’s wicket in the 12th over, he was aware that he needed to give the scoring a huge push. He did that with 37 off 17 deliveries, including two fours and four sixes.
When he fell in the 17th over after dominating his partnership with Green and giving the Australian the chance to recharge his batteries, Mumbai had raced to 151. The stage was ripe for Green to make the most of the breather, and Tim David to blast 41 more runs off the final 21 deliveries to take the momentum away from the home side.
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Quick wickets sink Sunrisers
On a slow and flat deck, Hyderabad had conceded more runs than they would have liked. They needed to bat smartly to chase the 193-run target. But with Harry Brook and Rahul Tripathi falling in quick succession to Jason Behrendorff in the power play, it became a long wait for the game to end until Klassen breathed life in the chase.
Aiden Markram, the captain, flickered for a while but when he miscued a loft off Green to the man inside the deep midwicket fence, it was all over bar the shouting. That feeling gained ground when Abhishek Sharma was dismissed by Piyush Chawla for 1, but Klassen had other ideas with his brilliance.
Yet, with Mayank Agarwal – a batter who could blast the ball out of the park almost at will a couple of seasons ago – not doing better than an anchoring effort, Hyderabad were only delaying the inevitable. David had a Jonty Rhodes kind of day on the field, taking four catches and effecting a brilliant run-out with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end from mid-off to see the back of Washington Sundar.
Arjun Tendulkar uses chance to reveal calm nerves
With 20 needed off the final over, Mumbai gave Arjun Tendulkar the chance to leave his imprint on the game and on the minds of those watching. He responded with calm nerves and a fine effort that saw him concede just two runs before wrapping up the innings with his maiden IPL wicket, Bhuvneshwar Kumar caught at extra-cover by Rohit.
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