Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 13 runs

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Mumbai Indians outplayed SRH in the sultry conditions of Chennai to comprehensively win by 13 runs while defending a paltry 150. The five times champion of IPL put up an awe-inspiring performance fitting for a defending champion looking to retain its crown. While SRH middle-order lost the plot mid-way courtesy of excellent bowling performance from MI.

A lot of credit should go to the MI’s team management that has ticked all the right boxes during the auctions to develop the bench strength that has players for every occasion. On the other hand, SRH roped in some of the most exciting white ball talents in their mix but struggling to put together the winning combination.

Here is a look at how the players with the big bucks from both the teams fared during the match.

The highest-paid player, retained for Rs 15 crore and 5 times IPL winning captain, Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first. In a crucial opening partnership of 55 with Quinton de Kock, Rohit hit 2 massive sixes and 2 stylish boundaries to score a quick fiery 32 off 25 balls. His aggressive batting propelled Mumbai Indians to 53 inside the power play. As captain, he skilfully rotated his bowlers and stifled the SRH batting line-up for runs by placing the right fielders at the right places. Any error from SRH batsmen was pounced upon gleefully by MI fielders.

With the price tag of Rs 11 crore, Hardik Pandya turned the match on its head by effecting the run-out to dismiss the dangerous David Warner (36 off 34 balls) at the score of 90 in the 12th over. This proved to be the turning point of the match as it triggered a batting collapse for SRH, losing 7 wickets for 47 runs. Abdul Samad (7 off 8 balls) was the 2nd victim of his accurate throwing, this time from covers, to reduce SRH to 129 for 6. Unable to score much in this match, Hardik (7 off 5 balls) made mends with his fielding. While his brother, Krunal Pandya had an average outing.

Krunal was retained by MI for Rs 8.80 crore for his all-around abilities. While batting he faced only 3 balls scoring 3 runs. On a spin-friendly pitch, Krunal away 30 runs of his 3 overs, but picked up the crucial wicket of Jonny Bairstow (43 off 22) as he was threatening to take the game away from MI.

Ishan Kishan bought for Rs 6.20 crore, looked all at sea against the accurate SRH bowling attack, and managed to score 12 runs off 21 balls before being dismissed by Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

The next big-ticket player for MI, Kieron Pollard (Rs 5.40 crore) proved his worth in gold. While wickets kept falling around him, Pollard held his fort and took MI to the total of 150/5. Studded with 3 huge sixes and a solitary boundary, his unbeaten innings of 35 off 22 balls and a diving catch to dismiss Manish Pandey earned him the man of the match award as well. During his knock, Pollard also brought up his 200th six of IPL.

But the real heroes for Mumbai Indian’s were Trent Boult and Rahul Chahar, bought for Rs 3.20 crore and Rs 1.90 crore respectively. Both the bowlers picked up 3 wickets each while giving away only 47 runs from 7.4 overs between them.

For SRH, the big buys hardly had any impact on the game as they suffered their third straight loss of the season.

David Warner, with the price tag of Rs 12.50 crore, raised hopes for a captain’s innings during his 34 balls stay at the crease, cut short by a brilliant piece of fielding by Hardik Pandya on 36. Warner hit 2 sixes and 2 fours during the innings.

Trusting his temperament for big matches, SRH retained Manish Pandey for Rs 11 crore only to be disappointed with a below-par performance. An irresponsible shot off Rahul Chahar ended his 2 off 7 balls innings, caught by Pollard at long-off.

Retained for Rs 9 crore, the afghan spin wizard Rashid Khan went wicket-less, giving away 22 runs off his 4 overs.

Indian veteran seamer Bhuvaneshwar Kumar also had a dismal outing, below par for his Rs 8.50 crore ticket price. In his four overs, Kumar was smashed across the park by MI batsmen for 45 runs at an economy rate of 11.25 per over.

Amongst the highest-paid SRH players, only Vijay Shankar could muster an above-par performance. The Rs 3.20 crore All-Rounder, picked up 2 wickets for 19 runs in his three overs during MI’s innings. Coming to the crease at the fall of David Warner’s wicket, Vijay held the innings together and brought the team closer to the target with two huge sixes of Krunal Pandya. But it was too little and too late for SRH, Vijay was dismissed for 28 off 25 balls by Jasprit Bumrah.

Whereas bought for only Rs 2.20 crore, Jonny Bairstow put up a stellar performance for the orange army. In absence of Wridhiman Saha, Bairstow excelled the dual role of wicket-keeper and opening batsman. The English gloves man took a brilliant catch down the leg side to dismiss Ishan Kishan and looked flawless behind the stumps. During the opening partnership of 67 with David Warner, Bairstow scored at the strike rate of 195.45. He toyed with MI bowlers before unfortunately stepping onto his stumps to pull a juicy half-tracker from Krunal Pandya. In his innings of 43 off 22 balls, Bairstow hit 3 boundaries and 4 over boundaries.

With this win, Mumbai Indians move to the top of the points table while Sunrisers Hyderabad remains at the bottom with no wins under their belt. After the initial hiccup during the first match of the tournament, MI has come back stronger with a holistic on-field performance and looks like the team to beat in the tournament.

MI faces Delhi Capitals on 20th April and SRH is set to take on Punjab Kings at the same venue on 21st April.