Mumbai Indians 174 for 3 (Suryakumar 102*, Tilak 37, Bhuvneshwar 1-22) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 173 for 8 (Head 48, Cummins 35*, Pandya 3-31, Chawla 3-33) by 7 wickets
But Suryakumar decided to do Suryakumar things as he launched an attack on the SRH bowlers, Marco Jansen in particular, to get things back on track. Tilak Varma played the perfect second foil with 37 not out off 32 adding 143 off 79 balls with Suryakumar to help Mumbai seal the win in 17.2 overs.
A T20 or a Test?
First nine balls: 26 for 0
Next 19 balls: 6 for 3
Chasing 174 at a venue where scores in excess of 180 have been breached in six out of eight innings coming into this game, did not feel like a daunting ask, but the SRH bowlers made life extremely tough for the batters. There were oodles of swing and seam available and initially, the bowers were not able to control the swing. They bowled 18 extras in the first three overs, but once they found their lengths, batting started to feel like an arduous task. The ball zipped off the surface, the batters were beaten multiple times, and wickets started to fall.
It was the Test match length that got them the wickets. Jansen first struck with a seaming delivery that Ishan Kishan could only edge to first slip. And when it’s the Test match length that we are talking about, how can the Australia Test captain not come into the picture? Pat Cummins bowled a sensational first over, a wicket-maiden that included getting rid of Rohit Sharma through a big top-edge. Bhuvneshwar then got Naman Dhir for a nine-ball duck flashing to first slip.
Not a single run was scored off the bat between overs 1.3 to 4.4 with Mumbai all over the place.
SKY does SKY
After three overs in which nine runs were scored, Suryakumar said enough is enough. He first took on Pat Cummins before reserving special treatment for Jansen. The Supla shot came out multiple times as he went 4, 4, 6 in the seventh over before swatting Jansen over fine leg for a flat six as overs six and seven yielded a combined 38 runs. From 4 off 7, Suryakumar moved to 32 off 14 in no time and all the initial momentum that SRH gained was lost.
Tilak played the role of the second fiddle to perfection even as Suryakumar kept on going. In all, Suryakumar walloped Jansen for 32 runs off nine balls, which included four fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 355.50 reaching his fifty off 30 balls.
There were a few concerned faces in the Mumbai dugout when Suryakumar was seen limping for a bit, but the big hits never ceased. A Bhuvneshwar slower ball was mowed over long-on before Shahbaz Ahmed was swept twice in two balls. Suryakumar then raced from 82 to 96 in three balls going 4, 4, 6 in the 17th over. And then with six needed to win, he backed away and went inside out over covers off T Natarajan to seal a big win for Mumbai.
This was Suryakumar’s second IPL hundred, and sixth in T20 cricket.
Head rides his luck early
Jasprit Bumrah took out Abhishek Sharma, caught behind for 11 off 16, but SRH still managed to reach 56 for 1 in the powerplay. Mumbai would have been miffed because they drew 18 false shots in the first six overs, but only got one wicket to show for their effort.
More to follow
Ashish Pant is a sub-editor with ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo