Hyderabad: Mayank Markande’s four-wicket heroics went in vain as Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Mumbai Indians in a last-over thriller to notch up their second win on the trot in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.
With this win, Hyderabad have now moved on to the top of the IPL table, while as for the defending champions Mumbai, they have now succumbed to their second defeat in as many games. Shikhar Dhawan is now the proud owner of the orange cap while Markande is now the leading wicket-taker in the league so far and will wear the purple cap.
Chasing a modest target of 148, Hyderabad openers Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha came out all guns blazing and started to deal in boundaries in no time. The duo put on a 62-run partnership for the first wicket to firmly put the hosts in the driving seat.
But all that changed in the seventh over when skipper Rohit Sharma introduced young spinner Mayank Markande into the attack and he removed Saha in his first over itself. Hyderabad skipper Kane Williamson followed suit soon when he edged a Mustafizur Rahman delivery into the hands of keeper Ishan Kishan.
Dhawan’s 45-run innings was also halted by Markande when he hit the ball straight into the hands of Bumrah at square leg. Manish Pandey became Markande’s third scalp of the day when he top-edged a delivery miles in the air and Rohit took a good high catch.
Deepak Hooda and Shakib Al Hasan took Hyderabad past the 100-run mark but the Bangladesh all-rounder edged the ball onto the his stumps and he became Markande’s fourth scalp of the day. At this point, the hosts were reeling at 107/5 in 13 overs and Mumbai were right back in the game.
Hooda then steadied the Hyderabad ship along with Yusuf Pathan and the duo took the team closer to the Mumbai score. The due put on 29 runs for the seventh wicket and helped Hyderabad return to the driver’s seat once again, with the help of singles and doubles.
However, a blip in concentration made Yusuf hit a Bumrah delivery straight into the hands of Pollard, who was fielding on the leg side, inside the circle. Then on the next delivery, Bumrah got the wicket of Rashid Khan to turn the match on its head once again.
Mustafizur returned into the attack in the penultimate over a scalped the wicket of Siddharth Kaul as he became the ninth batsman to head back into the hut. The match headed into the last over where Mumbai needed one wicket to win and Hyderabad required 11 runs.
Hooda smashed a six off the first delivery off the bowling of Ben Cutting and Hyderabad then needed 5 off 5. One wide and three singles later, the match was tied and Billy Stanlanke found himself on strike to face the last ball of the innings, with Hyderabad needing one run to win. The southpaw heaved the ball on the onside and the hosts recorded a famous win in front of their fans.
Earlier, batting first, Mumbai batsmen never got going and Hyderabad bowlers managed to restrict them for a modest score of 147/5 in their designated 20 overs. Sandeep Sharma, Siddharth Kaul and Billy Stanlake all picked up two wickets each while Rashid Khan bowled 18 dot balls to help Hyderabad restrict Mumbai to a sub-par score.
The high-profile Mumbai batting line-up once again flattered to deceive as the likes of Evin Lewis, Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard 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 last ten of the MI innings got them only 69 runs.
Sandeep Sharma (2/25 in 4 overs) proved to be a like-for like replacement for Bhuvneshwar with his 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.
Skipper Rohit Sharma was out trying to whip a delivery from Billy Stanlake that grew big on him and the catch was taken at square leg by Shakib Al Hasan. Ishan’s hard-hitting approach didn’t pay dividends as well as he failed to make most of a dropped catch by Sandeep Sharma as Siddharth Kaul had him caught at third man.
Evin Lewis 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 delivery to offer a simple catch.
Stanlake got the prized of Pollard, who gave away an easy catch 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.