Rohit Sharma and Man-of-the-Match Trent Boult (4 for 26) were the stars for the Blues band that rocked Hyderabad on Wednesday night
Hyderabad:It was supposed to be a belter for the hosts. The visitors wielded the whip. Mumbai Indians proved too hot for Sunrisers as they registered a cracking seven-wicket win that propelled them to third on the points table of the Indian Premier League. Sun stays static at ninth.
Rohit Sharma and Man-of-the-Match Trent Boult (4 for 26) were the stars for the Blues band that rocked Hyderabad on Wednesday night. Rohit rattled a 46-ball 70 to lead the charge with eight boundaries and three sixes as Mumbai hunted down SRH’s 143 for 8 with more than four overs to spare.
Earlier, a hefty half-century from Heinrich Klaasen and a fine 43 from Abhinav Manohar revived a half-dead Sunrisers from 35 for 5 to a modest total via their 99-run partnership for the sixth wicket.
Klaasen crafted a cut-throat knock, hitting 71 in just 44 balls as he negotiated the Mumbai bowlers with authority, evident from his nine boundaries and two soaring sixes, one of which came against rookie spinner Vignesh Puthur as the team 50 came in the 10th over. The South African slayer was out on the last ball of the penultimate over, caught by Hyderabad’s Tilak Varma while attempting a big hit off India spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, who took his wickets tally to 300 in T20s.
At the other end, Abhinav was unfazed and played audaciously in the company of Klaasen. Not afraid to loft the ball, he cleared the field cleanly and collected runs coolly in his 37-ball essay that included two boundaries and three maximums — one each off Bumrah, Boult and rival captain Hardik Pandya. The right-hander was out hit-wicket in the last over bowled by Boult.
But Sun started slowly, very slowly. A leg-bye and wide is all they managed in the first over bowled by Deepak Chahar. The second ball of the second over saw the fall of the first wicket, Travis Head skying a catch to Naman Dhir at deep backward point to be out for a duck. And when new man Ishan Kishan stole a single off Boult it was the first run scored off the bat, on the 11th ball of the innings. That was all Ishan — who hit a century in the season opener here — managed before edging Chahar to Ryan Rickelton behind the stumps.
Sun’s other centurion this season, Abhishek Sharma, soon departed as he cut Boult straight into the waiting hands of Vignesh at cover point. He made just 8 which included a six.
When home hope Nitish Reddy was nailed by Chahar for just 2 in the fifth over Sun had lost most of their power in Powerplay, at the end of which the score read a sorry 24 for 4. It was their second lowest during the rapid-fire round, behind the 14 for 3 against Rajasthan Royals at Pune in the 2022 edition.
Soon, Pandya induced an edge off Aniket Verma’s bat that landed in wicketkeeper Rickelton’s gloves as Sun slipped to 35 for 5 in the 9th over.
That’s when Klaasen and Abhinav got together and undid the damage. It did not matter in the end though.
