Defending champions Mumbai Indians recorded their third win of the IPL 2020, getting the better of Sunrisers Hyderabad by 34 runs at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Sunday. Quinton de Kock’s half-century, along with some solid hitting at the death by Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers lifted MI to a strong 208/5, in reply to which SRH were kept to 174/7, with fast bowlers Trent Boult, James Pattinson and Jasprit Bumrah picking up two wickets each.
After Rohit Sharma opened the scoring with a six, MI lost their skipper next ball out caught behind to Sandeep Sharma. Suryakumar Yadav walked out to bat at No. 3 and immediately got on a boundary-hitting spree to get the MI innings going. Yadav hit six boundaries in a span of 13 balls, including three in a row of Siddarth Kaul, before picking the out the fielder at short fine leg.
De Kock and Ishan Kishan put on 78 runs for the third wicket, with the South Africa captain playing aggressor. He launched four sixes and creamed four boundaries en route to recording his first half-century of the season off 32 balls before Rashid Khan foxed him with a wrong one. SRH struck gold to remove Kishan shortly after, out to a stunning catch from Manish Pandey at long-on.
With the stage set for Pollard and Hardik Pandya to go bonkers in the final five overs, MI took the SRH bowlers on. Pandya struck two sixes and two fours before being bowled by a Kaul yorker, but Pollard kept MI on their way to 200 with some lusty blows. The icing on the cake was Krunal Pandya, who slammed two fours and two sixes off four balls to remain unbeaten on 20, taking MI over the 200-run mark.
With David Warner struggling for runs, Jonny Bairstow scored a quickfire 25 before holing out to Hardik at deep fine leg. Manish Pandey started with a flurry of boundaries and along with Warner, kept the scoreboard moving. Pandey was dropped by Hardik at deep point with the sun getting in his eye but the drop didn’t prove costly as only 12 balls later, Pattinson had him out caught at long-off.
Warner forged a lone battle with hardly anu support from the rest of his teammates. Williamson feathered the ball to de Kock behind the stumps and previous game’s hero Priyam Garg struggled as well. Warner took 34 balls to get to his fifty but struggled for timing despite hitting five fours and two sixes. With the equation boiling down to 70 needed off 30 balls, Pattinson dealt SRH the big blow of Warner before Bumrah picked up two wickets in his final over despite going for 41 in his four.
Source: IPLT20.com