Rohit, Boult help Mumbai climb to third in IPL table

ROHIT SHARMA scored 76 and Trent Boult took 4 for 26 as Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets on Wednesday to move up to third in the IPL standings.

Boult and Deepak Chahar broke through the Hyderabad top order, reducing them to 35 for 5 before they ended on 143 for 8. Mumbai chased down the target with 26 balls remaining for their fourth straight win.

Rohit hit his second consecutive half-century, making 76 off 46 balls with eight fours and three sixes. He shared a 64-run stand with Will Jacks (22) and a 53-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav, who remained unbeaten on 40 off 19 balls.

Boult, who retired from international cricket in 2024, was named player of the match for his early breakthroughs.

“I still love the feeling of competing and getting wickets,” Boult said. “It's a huge tournament, there are hundreds of thousands of bowlers who'd love to do what we're doing so it's about not taking it for granted.”

The win took Mumbai from sixth to third in the 10-team table led by Gujarat Titans. Hyderabad, led by Pat Cummins, suffered their sixth loss in eight matches.

“We have a few away games now, it will be about assessing each wicket as quickly as possible,” Cummins said. “Some days it will be all-out attack, some days it will be about weighing our options.”

The match began with a minute’s silence for the victims of the attack in Pahalgam, Kashmir, where 26 people, including one Nepali national, were killed on Tuesday.

Players wore black armbands and the BCCI suspended cheerleaders, fireworks, and music as a mark of respect.

Boult dismissed Travis Head for a duck and later removed Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy.

Chahar took the wicket of Ishan Kishan for one and contributed to the early damage. Hardik Pandya struck in the ninth over to leave Hyderabad five down.

Heinrich Klaasen hit 71 off 44 balls and added 99 runs with Abhinav Manohar (43) to revive the innings, but their effort was not enough.

Klaasen was dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah for his 300th T20 wicket. Boult took two more wickets in the final over.

(With inputs from agencies)