Sunrisers Hyderabad held their nerves to edge out Mumbai Indians by one wicket off the last ball of the match in a thrilling IPL encounter, in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad’s No 11 Billy Stanlake lofted Ben Cuttings last delivery of the 20th over to eke out their second win of the tournament as Rohit Sharma’s men slipped to their second defeat in successive matches.
Chasing a modest target of 148, Hyderabad were cruising along at 73 for 1 before an inexplicable batting collapse left them staring at defeat. It was young Deepak Hooda composed 32 off 25 balls that proved to be precious in the final context of the match. Hooda hit Cutting’s first delivery off the final over for a six to ease off the pressure with Stanlake holding fort at the other end.
It was young leg-spinner Mayank Markande (4/23 in 4 overs) once again impressed one and all with his temperament and control as his spell got Mumbai Indians back in the match despite a modest total on board.
Shikhar Dhawan (45 off 28 balls) and Wriddhiman Saha (22 off 20) made it look like a walk in the park before Markande wreaked havoc. He first ball his stock ball googly to trap Saha leg before.
Skipper Kane Williamson (6) edged one off Mustafizur Rahaman to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.
From a comfortable 73 for 1, Markande engineered a slide that found Sunrisers reeling at 107 for five. Dhawan went trying to hit a slog sweep to a delivery that bounced a tad more. Manish Pandey danced down the track and mistimed his lofted shot while Shakib Al Hasan was played on off the last ball of his spell. Markande currently holds the Purple cap with seven wickets from two games.
However young Hooda and the seasoned Yusuf Pathan (14) added 29 runs to bring their team closer to victory. But Mustafzur Rahaman brought them back in contention with a brilliant 19th over that cost MI only a run leaving Hyderabad 11 to win off final over. Thanks to Hooda they achieved it.
Earlier, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowlers once again put up a stellar show restricting a star-studded Mumbai Indians to 147 for 8 .
The much-vaunted MI batting line-up flattered to deceive as the likes of Evin Lewis (29), Suryakumar Yadav (28) and Kieron Pollard (28) got out after getting set which put brakes on their scoring rate.
The lower middle-order caved in badly as Sunrisers looked as potent an attack even without their premier India bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Such was the dominance of the Hyderabad bowlers that the back 10 of the MI innings fetched them only 69 runs with only 36 coming off last five overs.
Sandeep Sharma (2/25 in 4 overs) proved to be a like-for-like replacement with his incisive swing bowling while Siddarth Kaul (2/29 in 4 overs) was once again impressive.
A lot of credit will got to Rashid Khan, who stifled the scoring during the middle overs with brilliant figures of 1 for 13 in 4 overs. Rashid bowled flat and fast with a mix of googlies and flippers. He bowled as many as 18 dot balls.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (11) was out trying to whip a delivery from Billy Stanlake (2/42) that grew big on him and the catch was taken at square leg by Shakib Al Hasan.
Ishan’s (9) maverick approach didn’t pay dividends as he failed to make most of a dropped catch by Sandeep Sharma as Siddharth Kaul had him caught at third man.
The normally dangerous Evin Lewis (29, 17 balls) started off well but tried to hit Kaul across the line only to find the off-stump knocked back.
The normally dependable Krunal Pandya closed his face to a Shakib Al Hasan (1/34 in 4 overs) delivery to offer a simple catch.
Stanlake hurried Pollard into ballooning one to Shikhar Dhawan at sweeper cover.
Sandeep then dismissed Suryakumar and Pradeep Sangwan off successive balls to ensure that MI don’t cross the 150-run mark.
