Sunrisers were the only team without a win till Monday, but that changed within a game’s time. Sunrisers captain David Warner put his hand up to take his team to their maiden victory in IPL 2016. The match was played at the Rajiv Gandhi international Stadium at Hyderabad, once known as the fortress for the home team. SRH won the toss and decided to bowl first on a wicket that was offering some help to fast bowlers.
MI came out to bat with their new recruit Martin Guptill and Parthiv Patel. With Rohit Sharma at No. 3 and Hardik Pandya dropping down the order, the batting order looked much more settled for Mumbai.
The results did not prove it though. Mumbai suffered in the very first over itself when Martin Guptill walked back, caught behind for 2 off the bowling of Bhuvneshwar Kumar. The batting order changed once again as Ambati Rayudu walked in at No. 3 and played well but wickets kept falling at the other end. Some disciplined bowling and tight fielding from Hyderabad saw Mumbai slump to 60 for 4 in the 11th over. Newbie Krunal Pandya, after his impressive debut, was promoted up the order and walked in to bat before the senior Pandya. Rayudu and Pandya started the rebuilding with moving the scoreboard steadily.
When Mumbai were 72 for 4 in 13 overs, it looked like they would end up with not more than 120 runs if they play well, but suddenly Rayudu and Pandya decided to launch and they did it in style.
After being dropped on the first ball of the 14th over, Pandya hit 3 consecutive sixes and Rayudu came up with a six as well in the 14th over bowled by Bipul Sharma to clobber a massive 26 runs. The next over bowled by Mustafizur went for 13 runs and suddenly Mumbai looked in command and on way to a score in the range of 160. But Hyderabad came back again with some good death bowling and restricting Mumbai to a below par score of 142 for 6. Major contributors being Rayudu 54 (49b) and K. Pandya 49*(28b).
For Sunrisers, Left arm quick Sran impressed with 28 for 3 off his 4 overs.
Sunrisers Bowlers laid a platform and Warner launched in style. It was not a smooth ride though for home side initially. Mumbai`s opening bowler Tim Southee was steaming in and swinging the ball everywhere.
He bowled two classical in swinging Yorkers to opener Shikhar Dhawan, the second one shattering his stumps. Hyderabad were 4 for 1 in the first over.
Next man Moses Henriques was not at his fluent best but scratched around the crease to add 62 runs for the 2nd wicket with Warner. Warner was scoring at will at a good pace, hence the run rate was kept in check. Eoin Morgan scored 11 before being brilliantly caught in the outfield by a diving Hardik Pandya. Hyderabad were 100 for 3 in 14.3 overs. There was no real reason to panic as Warner was set at one end and the new batsman Deepak Hooda, played a good support to his skipper who finished the match in a hurry with some telling blows out of the boundary. Sunrisers overhauled the target in 17.3 overs for a loss of just 3 wickets. Warner, the man of the match, was unbeaten on 90 off just 59 balls.
It is a timely win for the sunrisers and a wake up call for all the sides. The tournament looks to set some pace now with all teams placed pretty close.
Mumbai need to introspect. A batting order of this might should not fail this regularly. Mumbai has made some serious comebacks in the previous years but to wait for just that could be a huge mistake.