MI ( Source : IPL )
Mumbai witnessed a Suryakumar Yadav show at Wankhede Stadium against Sunrisers Hyderabad. The flamboyant batter struggled with his injury but kept pushing hard till the end and got the job done for Mumbai Indians. Against a team, that was dominating everyone with the ball, Suryakumar maintained his composure and played to his merit to help Mumbai win the match by seven wickets.
Batting first, Surnisers Hyderabad struggled a bit. Travis Head survived on two different occasions. First, debutant Anshul Kombaj rattled the stumps but it was a no-ball and latter, a sitter was dropped. Meanwhile, Abhishek Sharma couldn’t do any damage. Head, however, kept going as he made 48 runs off 30 deliveries but barely got any support from the others. Towards the fag end, skipper Pat Cummins smashed 35* runs off 17 deliveries which helped them post 173 runs on the board in the first innings.
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When it came to the chase, Mumbai got off to a flying start but most of their runs came through extras. Sooner than later, they lost three wickets and were on the back foot. Just when it was felt that Mumbai are slowly inching towards another defeat, Suryakumar stepped up and smashed a brilliant century. Tilak Varma supported him well in the middle, which made the chase easier for Mumbai.
1. Mumbai ka Raja – Suryakumar Yadav
Suryakumar actually played like a king against Hyderabad. He smashed the bowlers all over the park and made 102* runs off 51 balls as Mumbai won the match with 16 balls remaining. Him returning back to runs is a massive plus point for not just Mumbai but also for the national team. He suffered an injury during the chase but he didn’t stop attacking and eventually won it for Mumbai.
2. Chawla still got it
Whenever people talk about Mumbai’s bowling attack, they talk about Jasprit Bumrah and rightly so, but Piyush Chawla was sensational against Hyderabad which deserves a lot of recognition. The veteran spinner picked up three crucial wickets of Travis Head, Heinrich Klaasen and Abdul Samad, which broke SRH’s backbone. He was critical in MI’s massive victory over SRH.
3. What went wrong for SRH?
Unless their openers manage to give them a good start, SRH have struggled with the bat. That is one area that the management needs to address immediately. Klaasen not being in form in not helping them and they also should look forward to bringing in Glenn Phillips in place of Marco Jansen. They can play Umran Malik with the ball and Phillips can too provide a couple of overs.
Losing skipper Pat Cummins said:
Probably a couple short, at the Wankhede you want as many as you can get. You always feel like you’re in, the wicket had a little bit in it so we were definitely in the game. I think Sanvir helped us get to that 170 instead of 150, ideally we’d have a bowler. It’s T20 cricket, and it doesn’t always work out. SKY played really well. We like playing at home, we’ll wait and see what’s ahead of us. Hopefully a few more fireworks.
Winning skipper Hardik Pandya said:
We want to focus on playing good cricket, still think we gave 10-15 runs extra. The way the batters batter, that was excellent. My bowling, I like to bowl in the right areas, I bowl according to the situation. Bowled in the right areas today and it worked. I was like Chawla had to bowl from the shorter side. You got to be accurate, the margin of errors have become smaller these days for the bowlers. It’s unbelievable, the best past of SKY is that he puts the bowlers under pressure. It’s sheer confidence, his game has changed, is one of the best batters. He can change a game in a different way, lucky to have him (SKY) in our side.
POTM Suryakumar Yadav said:
I have done this after a long time. I fielded for 20 overs and batted for 18 overs, only tired (nothing else to worry about.) I feel it was the need of the hour for me. I went out to bat, needed someone to bat till the end. I just enjoyed my time. It’s from the Mumbai school of arts, have played a lot of cricket at Wankhede. When the ball stopped seaming, I played all my shots that I practice in the nets. I feel the intent would have been the same, I would have definitely played in the same pattern.