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Ryan Rickelton's century went in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad chased down the target of 244 with eight balls to spare and six wickets in hand, to stretch their winning streak to five games and return to the third spot on the points table. The fourth highest run-chase in IPL was powered by blazing half-centuries from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen.
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@B3$Mumbai Indians 243/5 in 20 overs [Ryan Rickelton 123* (55), Will Jacks 46 (22); Eshan Malinga 1-29] lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad 249/4 in 18.4 overs [Travis Head 76 [30], Heinrich Klaasen 65* (30); AM Ghazanfar 2-51) by 6 wickets
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In a contest where more than 485 runs were scored with two half-centurions and a centurion, it was Eshan Malinga's spell through the middle and the death overs that proved to be the difference on the flat track of Wankhede. The pacer conceded only 29 runs and bagged one wicket, and provided the brief stutter that proved to be the difference.
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The Mumbai Indians opener, who was recovering from hamstring injury, was unavailable for the clash, with skipper Hardik Pandya stating "Rohit's gonna take a couple of more games. He's been trying, it's not up to exactly where he would want to be."
The more surprising part at the toss was Pandya's decision to bat first at the Wankhede.
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If the Powerplay performance was anything to go by, not really. Will Jacks, playing his first game of the season, was pushed to open the batting and he responded with a blazing 22-ball 46, taking apart Praful Hinge, Pat Cummins and Harsh Dubey. Ryan Rickelton was equally destructive from the other end, smashing sixes off hinge and Sakib Hussain as the duo mustered 78 runs in the Powerplay after MI elected to bat.
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With the introduction of Nitish Reddy, SRH's sixth bowling option, in the eighth over. The seamer got the ball to move away slightly and had Jacks caught behind off the first ball of his spell, and the partnership ended on 93. Eight balls later, Eshan Malinga tested Suryakumar Yadav's pull, and had him caught at fine leg. Two wickets in quick succession pulled a bit of momentum back.
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Not really. While Naman Dhir took time to get going, Rickelton was quick to find gaps on the field. Even as different strategies were employed against the southpaw, he managed to explore different parts of the ground to find his boundary zones. He was particularly productive on the legside. Harsh Dubey, especially, bore the brunt of his attack, getting hammered for 50 runs from his three overs. Through the latter parts of the middle overs, Malinga, Cummins and Praful Hinge delivered a miserly over each to keep a check on the surge.
Hardik Pandya's 15-ball cameo, earned MI 31 runs, but it was a period where Rickleton didn't get much strike. Even as he went on to smash 123 runs, the most by an MI batter, and ended the innings with a boundary and a six, the last eight overs earning only 87 runs proved costly in the end.
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Travis Head was short of his fluent best coming into this match. It could have ended several times today. In the first over, when an edge went just past Will Jack. In the third over, when Naman Dhir dropped him on 2 at the boundary. Two overs later, he found Naman Dhir again, this time at backward point, with his edge flying just over the fielder.
But he made all those opportunities count, starting with three sixes off Trent Boult in the third over, to give his innings some momentum. By the time the Powerplay was done, he had smoked five sixes and three boundaries. In the next over, he brought up his half-century with another six. This time again, there was Naman Dhir, who got a hand to the ball and attempted to parry it back inside the ropes, but despite his brilliant effort, he couldn't prevent a six.
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Kind of.
For all the variety that Mumbai Indians possessed with seven bowling options, none quite worked. Not even Will Jacks' offspin, which was carted away for 19 in the fifth over by Head and Abhishek Sharma. No one was spared the wrath of this attack, not even Jasprit Bumrah who was pummelled for 28 runs in two overs.
The SRH openers blazed away to 92 runs in the Powerplay - the joint-highest scored against MI. But they continued the attack even after that, racing away to 126 runs in 8 overs, bringing down the required rate to around 10 in a 245-run chase.
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For a brief while they did. After being taken apart for 12 runs in his 12 overs, AM Ghazanfar returned to the attack in the ninth over, and dismissed Abhishek and Ishan Kishan off successive deliveries. Abhishek mistimed a slog to Trent Boult and Kishan chopped one back on to the stumps. In the next over, Hardik got Head to scoop a drive to extra cover as SRH slipped from 129 for no loss to 133 for 3 in a matter of 10 deliveries, with two new batters in the middle.
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Not for too long. Heinrich Klaasen was quick to punish the errors in lines and lengths from Ghazanfar and smashed the spinner for 16 runs in 11 overs to ensure MI didn't seize the momentum back. In the next over, he was quick to put away the short and wide deliveries from Ashwani Kumar. By the time, MI found the perfect fix - wide full lengths outside off - the required rate had dropped to around nine and over. Even as Nitish Reddy and Klaasen struggled to put away those deliveries from Trent Boult and Pandya, Bumrah and Ghazanfar, who didn't stick to that plan, were duly punished, and the required rate continued to drop.
Reddy fell to a surprise quick bouncer from Boult, but Salil Arora came and ensured that there was no pressure to soak in. He blasted three sixes and two fours to help SRH over the line without any late twists.
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While SRH have regained their third spot on the table and strengthened their bid for a place in the playoffs with their sixth win of the season, MI languish in the ninth spot with their sixth loss in eight games, putting their campaign in a precarious position.
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While Sunrisers Hyderabad will head back home to host Kolkata Knight Riders in Sunday's afternoon clash, Mumbai Indians will fly to Chennai to face CSK on Saturday.
