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Mumbai Indians apply the Chennai choke on Sunrisers
IPL 2021: Defending a total of 150, MI were well served by leg-spinner Rahul Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah with performances of 4-0-19-3 and 4-0-14-1 respectively. It was MI’s second win in three games while SRH suffered their third straight defeat.
At a time of total dominance of the Indian Premier League (IPL) by Mumbai Indians (MI), Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) are one of the few teams to had their measure; the head-to-head record with the defending champions being 8-all ahead of Saturday’s game.
At Chennai’s M A Chidambaram Stadium, the David Warner-led outfit put up another tough fight against the blue brigade before going down by 13 runs.
Defending a total of 150, MI were well served by leg-spinner Rahul Chahar and Jasprit Bumrah with performances of 4-0-19-3 and 4-0-14-1 respectively. It was MI’s second win in three games while SRH suffered their third straight defeat.
After the powerplay overs, MI players had a resigned look on their faces. But a stroke of luck changed the course of the game. SRH opener Jonny Bairstow --- back as opener --- stepped on to his stumps in trying to ramp left-arm spinner Krunal Pandya to be out for 43 off 22 balls (four sixes and three fours).
It ended an opening partnership of 67 in 7.2 overs. MI put the pressure back leaking just seven runs in three overs, from 8th to 10th. The onus was on Warner and he hit a six off Chahar to take 11 off the 11th over. But in another twist, the talismanic opener was run out in the next over. It was still advantage SRH with 61 needed off 51 balls.
Chahar conceded just four in the 13th over to build the pressure on the new pair of Virat Singh and Vijay Shankar. He followed it with a double-wicket over to reduce SRH to 104/5. With the equation reading 47 off the last 30 balls, Shankar got his team back into the contest with two sixes over midwicket off Krunal Pandya, the 16th over yielding 16 runs. But though SRH needed 31 off 24 balls, two of the last four overs were to be bowled by Bumrah. The star pacer focused on taking the pace off the wicket and conceded just nine runs for one wicket in 12 balls to close the game.
The first few matches at the Chepauk stadium have shown the importance of getting as many as possible in the powerplay overs. Bairstow went about doing that from the third over. He first targeted MI’s experienced left-arm pacer Trent Boult by taking him for three fours and a six for 18 runs. It was followed by two sixes and a four off Adam Milne to take SRH to 42/0 after four overs.
With his pacers coming under fire, captain Rohit Sharma brought on his experienced spinner Pandya. Bairstow welcomed him with a six off the second ball. Warner made it a 13-run over with a four off the final ball. But the SRH captain was content to play second fiddle. Both openers had played 15 balls at that stage with Bairstow on 40 and Warner on 14. It was 55 for no loss after five, the equation down to almost run a ball at 96 off 90 balls.
The two were not attacking blindly. When Bumrah came on for the sixth over, he was treated with respect. The MI spearhead was the only one to return unscathed in that early assault. Bumrah followed his first over with an excellent over to end the powerplay and then had figures of 2-0-5-0. At the end of six overs, SRH were 57 for no loss.
Earlier, Sharma ensured MI also cashed in on the new ball with an innings of 32. Even though, the blue brigade’s start may not have looked as dramatic after watching Bairstow’s strokeplay, they had got 53 runs in the first six overs at a run-rate of 8.83.
While MI’s focus was on playing out Rashid Khan in the middle overs, they were ambushed by Shankar’s military medium-pace. MI’s momentum dropped after their captain holed out to deep midwicket, off Shankar in the seventh over. The SRH pacer added to the pressure by picking up Suryakumar Yadav in his next over. Thereafter, none of the batsmen could break free as the script played out like the earlier games here when batting gets difficult from the middle overs.
Quinton de Kock scored 40 (39 balls) and Kieron Pollard hammered an unbeaten 35 (22 balls) but MI could never really break free. The normally fluent Ishan Kishan laboured to 12 off 21 balls.
