A thrilling contest was played at the Wankhede Stadium as Mumbai Indians faced Sunrisers Hyderabad. Batting first, SRH posted a challenging 193/6 thanks to a sublime innings of 76 from Rahul Tripathi. However, MI made a strong reply with their openers setting a solid base with a 95-run partnership.
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SRH struck back with three wickets from Umran Malik before just about keeping MI from chasing down the target for a three-run win.
Here’s a look at the major talking points from the encounter
Williamson Demotion
Kane Williamson is going through a horror of an IPL season. He is averaging below 20 and has a poor sub-100 strike-rate as well. This is when he has been opening the innings for SRH. Two of his peers – Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli – also openers of their respective franchises – have had a similar campaign. On Tuesday, Williamson dropped himself down the batting order and gave a chance to a young Priyam Garg – playing in his first game of the season – to open the innings. It turned out to be a wise decision with the youngster belting four fours and two sixes in his 26-ball 42. In fact, Williamson came in to bat at no 6 which seemingly was due to the match situation as SRH needed a power-hitter rather than an accumulator to provide late flourish. Will the template continue?
Also Read: Sunrisers Stay Alive After Beating Mumbai by Three Runs
Terrific Tripathi
Get him in India colors, This has been the clarion call every time Rahul Tripathi hits a sumptuous four or a six. The SRH batter has given India selectors another gentle reminder of his immense talent with an excellent 44-ball 76 against Mumbai Indians. He played shots all across the park. When full, he would launch them high into the stands – a 104 meter six over wide long on being the longest hit of his innings. When short, he cleverly guided them over short fine leg for fours. When full outside off, he steered the ball through backward point for four. It was his third fifty from the no 3 spot – the most by any batter while batting at the position this season so far. This fact alone indicates how crucial he has been to SRH. Will he finally be rewarded with an India call-up?
Also Read: MI vs SRH Match Highlights
Rohit of Yore
Rohit has been woefully out of form this season. It’s a strange coincidence that three of the modern-day greats – Williamson, Rohit and Kohli – are struggling in IPL 2022 at the same time. None has been able to produce anything near to their best. Kohli did raise hope with a laboured fifty but that turned out to be a false alarm. Williamson has dropped himself down the batting order to allow others to flourish. Rohit though finally showed glimpses of him returning to his best vs SRH. The MI captain took his time – consumed nine deliveries for 2 runs before opening up with a six over long-on. And once he broke free, boundaries started flowing. He struck two fours and four sixes to reach 48 and looked set to end his wait for a fifty this IPL before holing out on the same score – his best of the season so far. He took 36 deliveries to reach there.
Calm After Storm
The match seemed headed SRH’s way when the 17th over began. T Natarajan, one of the finest death-overs bowlers, was handed the ball. MI needed 45 off 15. But they still had Tim David. And boy did he give SRH fans a mighty scare. Natarajan tried for yorkers. He missed four times. All four times he ended up bowling full tosses. David summarily dismissed all those freebies over the boundary for four sixes. 26 runs came off the first five deliveries of the over including two extras via wides. Off the sixth delivery, David was run out after a mix-up with his batting partner.
MI now needed 19 off 15 with four wickets remaining. They ran out of specialist batters but the equation was pretty much in their favour. In came Bhuvneshwar Kumar and unlike Natarajan, the seasoned campaigner nailed his yorkers. He struck with the first delivery of the 18th over and followed that with five dot balls in a row. A wicket-maiden. And SRH seized control.
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