Hyderabad, May 17 (IANS) A superb bowling display by Mumbai Indians enabled them bowl out Sunrisers Hyderabad for a paltry 113 runs in a crucial Indian Premier League (IPL) match here on Sunday.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner chose to bat at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in a virtual knockout match, the winner of which will march in to the playoffs, knocking out the vanquished team.
But their plans of capitalising on a pitch that was full of runs boomeranged spectacularly as they ran into trouble from the very first over of their innings.
Shikhar Dhawan, one of their batting mainstays, departed after just one run, getting bowled by Sri Lankan pacer Lasith Malinga off the last ball of the first over, putting an end to his opening partnership with skipper David Warner (6) that has been SRH’s key to big totals in the tournament.
But that was just the beginning of what was a miserable batting performance as they lost their skipper on the very next delivery, caught by West Indian Kieron Pollard off a Mitchell McClenaghan delivery.
With their two best batsmen back in the hut, there was no way out for SRH who succumbed to the pressure losing wickets at regular intervals.
Credit must be given to the entire Mumbai bowling line-up who delivered in unison, keeping up the pressure on SRH batsmen.
They bowled a probing line and length and swiftly reduced SRH to 51 for five inside 10 overs with Hyderabad’s other two dependable foreign imports, England’s Eoin MOrgan (9) and Australia’s Moises Henriques (11) also back in the pavilion.
That broke the backbone of SRH’s batting. Any Hyderabad’s hopes of posting a strong total went up in smoke and they struggled to 113.
Mumbai’s opening pacers Malinga (4/17) and McClenaghan (3/16) were spectacular. They bowled in tandem and struck crucial blows to their opponents.
Their good work was carried on by the slower bowlers, spearheaded by Harbhajan Singh (3/18).
Sunrisers dropped Bipul Sharma and brought in Ashish Reddy while Mumbai went in with the same team that beat Kolkata Knight Riders in their last game.