Mumbai Indians held its nerve to register its second win in this season of the IPL at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. In a match that saw a lacklustre batting display by both teams, MI beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 20 runs.
Clearly, the buzz was missing right from the start as an anxious home crowd hoped for a turnaround in fortunes for Rohit Sharma’s side.
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With Mumbai Indians defending a modest 157, Lasith Malinga played his part upfront by removing David Warner, and returned at the end of the innings to scalp three more.
Meanwhile, left-arm pacer Mitchell McClenaghan dismissed the dangerous Shikhar Dhawan, choked the supply of runs and broke the partnership between Ravi Bopara and Hanuma Vihari.
With Malinga and McClenaghan taking seven wickets between them, Mumbai Indians will now consider itself back in the running for a play-off qualification.
More importantly, this win has given the side some peace leading up to its next match on May 1.
After Rohit chose to bat, a flurry of shots from Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel promised much on a pitch that offered consistent bounce and little by way of lateral movement. A Wankhede strip towards the end of the domestic season showed no signs of extra pace or bounce, but Warner picked Dale Steyn and Trent Boult — for the first time in six matches — and strengthened his pace options.
The Kiwi left-armer’s first over did little to cheer up Warner. His wrist and fingers failing to bring the ball back into the right-hander, Simmons whipped him for two on-side boundaries between square leg and mid-wicket.
Parthiv flicked a ball from around his front pad to the mid-wicket fence as the hosts raced away in the PowerPlay.
When it was appearing like the MI openers had taken control of the proceedings, Parthiv flicked Steyn straight into the hands of Hanuma Vihari positioned a metre inside the square leg fence.
Unmukt Chand began with a firm push off Steyn that split the off side field, but his fearless approach proved his undoing; his pull went straight to Dhawan inside the centre plot.
The tussle between the bat and ball continued, with MI’s third wicket pair in Simmons and Rohit enjoying the upper hand.
Simmons’s half-century also brought up Mumbai’s 100, but some crafty bowling by the Sunrisers seamers got them back in the contest.
Steyn castled Simmons and soon Rohit gifted his wicket to leg spinner Karn Sharma.
With the Bhuvneswar Kumar and Praveen Kumar plying their medium pace exceptionally well, MI struggled to lift their scoring rate, and managed to get past the 150-run mark thanks to Kieron Pollard.
The over 17,000 underprivileged persons brought to the venue by Reliance Foundation waved the MI flags, cheered lustily and seemed to genuinely enjoy the outing, and it was a occasion that was sweetened by a victory for the home side.
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