Hyderabad: Sunrisers Hyderabad continued with their brilliant home-run as they ousted Mumbai Indians by seven wickets here on Wednesday.
Brilliant performances from Shikhar Dhawan and Ishant Sharma made all the difference for Hyderabad. Dhawan scored 73 runs off 55 balls and Ishant bowled brilliantly and picked up a couple of wickets. Amit Mishra also chipped in with two wickets and played a pivotal role in restricting the Mumbai Indians to 129 runs in their 20 overs.
Chasing the target of 130, Sunrisers Hyderabad were off to poor start as they lost the wicket of Akshath Reddy who got out after scoring seven runs to Mitchell Johnson. But Shikhar Dhawan and Kumar Sangakkara played well to ressurect the Hyderabad innings. Though Harbhajan and Pragyan Ojha were looking dangerous but Sangakkara brought in his experience and started guiding the balls for boundaries to ease off the pressure.
Shikhar Dhawan also started freeing his arms and started stepping down the wicket to take on the bowlers. They did well to add 37 runs after before Sangakkara played a half-hearted shot and got out to Harbhajan Singh.
But Dhawan didn’t lose his cool and kept the boundaries coming and by the 10th over SRH were 61/2. Dhawan started hitting the ball well and scored five fours in the next five overs. His temperament and confidence was a treat to watch as he kept taking singles after scoring boundaries and brought down the asking run-rate considerably. Meanwhile, Hanuma Vihari also played a crucial role as he kept rotating the strikes against the spinners.
SRH reached 2/106 in 15 overs and scored the remaining runs in next three overs. In between they lost the wicket of Vihari who got out after scoring 25 runs off 23 balls.
Earlier, Mumbai Indians had a decent start as Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne smith came out to bat and added 32 runs for the opening stand. But Ishant Sharma bowled brilliantly to bamboozle the Master and took off his stumps and a ball later Sharma took the wicket of Dinesh Karthik which pushed MI on to the back-foot.
But they recovered well as Dwayne continued to smack the loose deliveries and was looking to steady the ship with Rohit Sharma. They were looking good as they reached 74/2 till the 11th over.
But twist in the tale came the departure of Rohit Sharma and Dwayne Smith in quick succession. Rohit Sharma gave a straight forward catch to Ishant Sharma off Amit Mishra's delivery and departed after scoring 22 runs. Smith got out after smacking two fours and two sixes in his knock of 38 runs.
Keiron Pollard, who took on to the crease, failed to propel the Mumbai innings. However Ambati Rayudu played his part well and smashed Perera for 16 runs in the final over to help Mumbai reach a stiff total of 129 with the loss of just four wickets. Rayudu scored 34 off 27 balls whereas Pollard scored 14 runs off 19 balls.
By ISN