Hyderabad: Mumbai Indians crushed Sunrisers Hyderabad by nine wickets in a must-win final league game to sail into play-offs of the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, here on Sunday.
Asked to bowl, Mumbai first came up with an impressive effort to bowl out Sunrisers for just 113 and then chased down the target with consummate ease with nine wickets in hand and 37 balls to spare.
By virtue of this win, Mumbai jumped to the second spot in the standings with 16 points from 14 games and will now face table toppers Chennai Super Kings in the Qualifier 1 at Mumbai on Tuesday. Third-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore will meet Rajasthan Royals in the eliminator at Pune on Wednesday. Chasing the modest paltry target, Mumbai finished at 114 for the loss of just one wicket in 13.5 overs.
With no pressure on the back, both Parthiv and Simmons played freely. While Parthiv smashed an unbeaten 51 off 37 balls with the help of nine boundaries, Simmons was unlucky as he was dismissed just two short of his fifty.
Simmons made 48 off 44 balls and decorated his innings with four boundaries and two sixes before being caught by Shikhar Dhawan off Karn Sharma’s (1/38) bowling with Mumbai just needing eight runs for the win.
Skipper Rohit Sharma finished off the proceedings without any further damage, remaining unbeaten on 7. But the credit for the victory should go to Mumbai’s bowling attack which dished out a clinical display to bundle out Sunrisers Hyderabad for a modest 113.
Left-arm pacer Mitchell McClenaghan (3/16) led Mumbai’s bowling attack from the front and he was assisted well by left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith (2/14) and Lasith Malinga (2/17). Electing to bat, Sunrisers were put on the backfoot straightway by Mumbai as the hosts lost both their openers — Dhawan (1) and skipper David Warner (6) — early in consecutive balls.
While Dhawan’s off stump was rattled by Malinga’s slinging yorker in the last delivery of the first over, Warner top-edged a McClenaghan’s well-directed short ball to Kieron Pollard as Sunrisers slumped to seven for two in 1.1 overs.Â
The two early wickets stifled in-form Moises Henriques (11) and Eoin Morgan (9) as the duo found it difficult to rotate the strike. The pair struggled to a 16-run third-wicket partnership before McClenaghan dealt another blow in the sixth over in the form of Morgan, whose upper cut was holed out in the third man by Lendl Simmons with the scoreboard reading just 23.
Then Henriques and K L Rahul (25 off 24) joined hands and somewhat steadied Sunrisers’ sinking ship with a fighting 28-run fourth wicket stand before Mumbai picked up three quick wickets to tighten the noose around the home team.
Suchith struck twice in the 10th over before veteran Harbhajan Singh (1/18) also registered his name in the wicket-takers list an over later. Suchith dismissed Henriques and Naman Ojha in consecutive deliveries to stand on the verge of a hat-trick, which eventually did not materialise.
Suchith first foxed Henriques with a tossed up delivery and wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel made no mistake in whipping the bails off before new man Ojha chipped the next ball straight to Rohit. After that, the onus was all on Rahul to take Sunrisers to a fighting total but he too perished soon, playing on a Harbhajan delivery on to his off stumps.
Sunrisers’ innings never got the momentum as they lost wickets at regular intervals.
Karn (15) and A Ashish Reddy (17) hung in there for a couple of overs before departing. In between Bhuvneshwar Kumar too failed with the bat becoming McClenaghan’s third victim of the day. Towards the end Dale Steyn (19 off 11) played a good hand to take Sunrisers close to the 120-run mark.