Images from Saturday's IPL match between Mumbai Indians and SunRisers Hyderabad, in Chennai.
Mumbai Indians staged a strong fightback to beat SunRisers Hyderabad by 13 runs and register their second victory in IPL 2021, at the M A Chidambaram stadium, in Chennai, on Saturday.
Restricted to a modest 150 for 5, made possible by Kieron Pollard’s late, unbeaten 35 off 22 balls, the defending champions turned in a superb showing in the field to shoot out the SunRisers for 137 in 19.4 overs.
Rahul Chahar (3 for 19) and Trent Boult (3 for 28) did most of the damage after Jonny Bairstow and David Warner gave the SunRisers a rollicking start, putting on 57 in the first six overs.
Hardik Pandya also played a leading hand, effecting the run-outs of Warner and Abdul Samad with direct hits.
The defeat was SunRisers Hyderabad's third in as many matches.
Warner and Bairstow put on 57 runs in the powerplay overs. The former scored 41 of those runs off 18 balls and Warner 15 off 18.
But just when the pair was going blazing, disaster struck the SunRisers.
Krunal Pandya, back in the attack and after a dot, cramped Bairstow for room as the batsman tried to go deep in his crease for the reverse sweep. However, as luck would have it, Bairstow hit the stumps with his backfoot.
He was out hit-wicket for 43 after hammering 43 off 22 balls, including 3 fours and 4 sixes, as SunRisers lost their first wicket for 71 in the eighth over.
They could add just four runs more as new-man in Manish Pandey perished.
He went after a tossed-up delivery from Rahul Chahar and was caught by Krunal at long-off. He was out for 2 and SRH 71 for 2 in the ninth over.
Meanwhile, Warner continued to fire, but three overs later he too perished.
Virat Singh tapped a slower delivery from Pollard towards the point region and took off for a run following Warner's call for a risky single. Hardik swooped on the ball and fired a direct hit at the striker's end. Warner was caught way short of the crease and walk back without bothering to wait for the replay.
Warner was run-out after scoring 36 off 34 and SunRisers reduced to 90 for 3 in the 12th over.
Following the exit of Bairstow and Warner the runs dried up for SunRisers. And Chahar added to their misery by dismissing Virat Singh.
The young batsman, trying up the ante, lofted the ball straight down long-on and was caught by Suryakumar Yadav.
Chahar got his second wicket and the SunRisers were 102 for 4 after the first ball of the 14th over.
Chahar struck again three balls later, dismissing Abhishek Sharma. The batsman tried to slog-sweep and holed out to Adam Milne. SunRisers Hyderabad were 104 for 5.
Shankar, however, refused to throw in the towel. He hit two sixes in the 16th over with Abdul Samad at the non-striker’s end as the SunRisers got to 120 for 5.
With 27 needed off the last three overs as Mumbai Indians brought Boult back into the attack and he delivered.
After hitting a four, Samad picked out the yorker and scampered for a quick single but Hardik hit the stumps from mid-on.
Samad was short of his crease by a mile, run-out for 7. SunRisers were 129 for 6.
Boult struck again with the last delivery of the 18th over, trapping Rashid Khan LBW for a duck.
His straight delivery hit Rashid low on the backfoot. The review showed the ball going under his bat and crashing into middle and leg. The SunRisers were 134 for 7.
Jasprit Bumrah ended Vijay Shankar’s resistance, having him caught by Suryakumar. Shankar scored 28 off 25 ball, including a six.
Boult then dismissed Bhuvneshwar and Khaleel Ahmed to finish with three for 28 from 3.4 overs as the SunRisers were shot out for 137 in 19.4 overs.
Earlier, Kieron Pollard produced a late assault to propel Mumbai Indians to fighting total.
The burly West Indian made the most of a ‘life’ in the penultimate over to hit two towering sixes off the last two deliveries of the final over and finish unbeaten with 35 off 22 balls as Mumbai Indians posted 150 for 5 in their 20 overs.
Vijay Shankar and Mujeeb-ur Rahman excelled with the ball as SunRisers Hyderabad produced a disciplined bowling performance after the opening duo of Rohit Sharma (32 off 25) and Quinton de Kock (40 off 39) scored 53 in the powerplay.
Vijay had figures of 2 for 19, while the Afghanistan spin duo of Mujeeb and Rashid Khan finished with 2 for 29 and 0 for 22 respectively.
Earlier, Rohit completed 4000 T20 runs and also surpassed Mahendra Singh Dhoni's record of the most sixes by an Indian in the IPL.
The 33-year-old now has 217 IPL sixes, one ahead of Dhoni. He occupies third place in the overall list, behind Punjab Kings's Chris Gayle (351) and Royal Challengers Bangalore's AB de Villiers (237).
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat.
The SunRisers made four changes to their playing eleven, leaving out Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Holder, Shahbaz Nadeem and Thangarasu Natarajan and bringing in Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb-ur Rahman and Khaleel Ahmed.
Mumbai Indians made just one change, Adam Milne replacing Marco Jansen.
Quinton de Kock and Rohit opened the batting for the defending champions while Bhuvneshwar Kumar sent down SunRisers’s first over.
Rohit and de Kock gave Mumbai a good start, bringing up the 50 of the innings in the sixth over.
The end of the powerplay saw right-arm medium pacer Vijay Shankar replace Khaleel Ahmed in the attack.
The change worked instantly as Shankar dismissed Rohit, who was showing ominous form.
The Mumbai Indians captain went for the slog but failed to middle the ball and was caught at deep mid-wicket by Virat Singh. He was out for 32 off 25 balls and Mumbai reduced to 55 for 1 in the seventh over.
Suryakumar Yadav, the new man in, hit Shankar for an inside-out six, but perished to the third delivery of the ninth over, offering a soft return catch to the bowler.
Yadav was out for 10 off six balls as Shankar claimed his second wicket and Mumbai Indians were 71 for 2 in the ninth over.
Afghanistan off-spinner Mujeeb-ur Rahaman returned to the attack in the 14th over and struck with his fifth delivery.
Cramped for room, De Kock went to the leg side and hoicked the ball in the air. Substitute J Suchit, at deep mid-wicket, made no mistake with the offering.
The opener was out for 40 and Mumbai Indians 98 for 3.
The SunRisers did well to check Mumbai Indians's scoring as they were going at over eight runs an over before Shankar's twin strike of Rohit and Suryakumar.
The onus was on Ishan Kishan and Kieron Pollard to boost the total. However, Mujeeb struck again, this time having Kishan caught by Jonny Bairstow for just 12 off 21 balls.
Mumbai Indians were 114 for 4 in the 17th over.
It could have soon been another one down, but Shankar dropped Pollard off the third delivery of the 19th over, bowled by Khaleel Ahmed.
But Ahmed tasted success off the next delivery, having Hardik Pandya caught by Virat Singh in the deep for 7 off 5 balls.
Pollard then made the most of the ‘life’ in the 19th over, hitting Bhuvneshwar for two sixes in the last over.
Bhuvneshwar conceded 17 runs from the over as Pollard finished with 35 off 22 balls, including one four and three sixes, as Mumbai Indians posted 150 for 5 in their 20 overs.
