IPL PIX: SKY smashes century as MI ease past SRH

Images from the IPL 2024 match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Monday.

• Scorecard

Suryakumar Yadav smashed an unbeaten century as Mumbai Indians eased past Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in the IPL 2024 match in Mumbai on Monday.

Suryakumar dominated with the bat as he blasted his way to a scintillating 102 not out from 51 balls, comprising of six sixes and 12 fours as MI cruised to 174/3 in 17.2 overs to win by seven wickets with 16 balls to spare.

The win lifted Mumbai Indians from the bottom of the points table to the ninth spot while SRH, despite the loss, remained fourth with 12 points in 11 games.

After MI were reduced to 31/3 in the fifth over, Suryakumar put on a match-winning fourth wicket partnership of 143 runs from 79 balls with Tilak Varma, who played the second fiddle to score 36 not out from 32 balls.

Ishan Kishan (9) perished early once again, caught at slip off Marco Jansen in the second over. SRH captain Pat Cummins struck in his first over, getting rid of Rohit Sharma, who was caught by wicketkeeper Heinrich Klaasen off a leading edge for four.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar also made the new ball count as he got Naman Dhir caught by Jansen at slip for a nine-ball duck.

Suryakumar began MI's revival as he smashed pacer Jansen for 22 runs in the seventh over, hitting two sixes and two fours. He hit the South African pacer for back to back fours to complete his fifty from 30 balls.

With Suryakumar get the boundaries regularly to keep MI ahead in the run chase, Varma was to content to play the supporting role.

The World's No 1 T20 batter was in no mood to relent. He hits Cummins for two fours and a six off successive deliveries in the 17th over to race into the 90s. Fittingly, Suryakumar slammed a full toss from Thangarasu Natarajan for a six to complete his century in grand style while also steering MI to an emphatic victory in the 18th over.

Earlier, Hardik Pandya regained his form with the ball, while veteran spinner Piyush Chawla bagged three wickets as Mumbai Indians restricted SRH to a below-par 173/8.

Pandya found rhythm and momentum to return 3/31 in four overs, while Chawla claimed 3/33 as the duo produced an impactful performance to dismantle the SRH batting line-up in the middle overs.

SRH skipper Pat Cummins staged a late rescue act as he slammed a quickfire 17-ball 35, hitting two sixes and as many fours to take SRH past the 150-run mark.

In complete contrast to last time these teams met earlier in this IPL when SRH hammered 277/3, their usually free-flowing batters struggled for momentum and lack of initiative meant they could never really trouble the Mumbai bowlers.

The Powerplay had yielded 56 runs for the visitors without any damage but lack of initiative and regular fall of wickets stemmed the flow of runs.

Leg-spinner Chawla made the biggest impact with key wickets of Travis Head (48) and Heinrich Klaasen (2) to put Mumbai Indians in complete control.

Head, who rode his luck throughout his stay in the middle, could not make the most of it. With two inside edges for boundaries at the start, SRH's premier batter appeared to be struggling for timing and rhythm.

In the fourth over, Head (24) made room to smack MI debutant Ankush Kamboj and lost his off-stump in the process but that was when he got his first lifeline as the bowler was found to have overstepped. Head got another life when Nuwan Thushara spilled a regulation chance at thirdman when the opener was on 44 in the eighth over, but by then, SRH's decline had already begun.

Bumrah had got Abhishek Sharma (11 off 16 balls) caught behind and Mayank Agarwal (5) had become the Kamboj's first victim.

Nitish Kumar Reddy (20) was bounced out by Pandya, who also snaffled the wicket of Shahbaz Ahmed (10) later on to mark a complete flop show with the bat for SRH.

• IPL 2024