Sunrisers Hyderabad cruised to a 6-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday, as half-centuries from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen powered SRH to a successful chase of 244 with 8 balls to spare.
MI posted the total riding on an unbeaten 123-run knock, while Will Jacks added 46 and Hardik Pandya chipped in with 31 runs as Eshan Malinga was the pick of the bowlers for SRH with his four-fer. But Head’s 76 and Klaasen’s 65 runs knocks, in addition to Salil Arora’s brisk late-cameo took the visitors over the line.
The defeat piled on MI’s woeful season as the joint most-successful side in the history of the tournament languish at towards the bottom of the table, but Pandya sought to rely on the side’s support
system, which has pulled through worse.
“I think it’s been that kind of season. When you get a couple of chances, you grab them, that’s when the luck and momentum changes. If you don’t, it kind of hurts you, but it’s still fine. All the boys tried really well. They gave everything, it did not work out,” he said.
“I won’t put my bowlers under the bus. I think as an overall unit, we have not been able to do what exactly Mumbai Indians stands for,” he said.
“We really need to see what all we need to work on and it’s fine. I think we have passionate owners, we have passionate support staff. We always figure out something,” Pandya added.
Mumbai, after opting to bat, got a blazing start from openers Will Jacks and Ryan Rickelton, who added 93, with Jacks smashing 46 off 22 before falling to Nitish Kumar Reddy. Suryakumar Yadav’s poor form continued as he was removed for 5 by Eshan Malinga, while Rickelton held the innings together. He brought up a fine fifty, with Naman Dhir contributing 22 before Praful Hinge dismissed him. Hardik Pandya’s brisk 31 off 15 and a brief 7 off 5 from Tilak Verma kept the tempo high, but it was Rickelton’s unbeaten 123 off 55 that powered MI to a commanding 243/5.
SRH’s chase started in explosive fashion through Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, who hammered a 129-run opening stand. Allah Ghazanfar broke through by removing Abhishek for 45 off 24 and also sent Ishan Kishan back for a golden duck. Head stormed to 76 off 30 before Pandya dismissed him, but Heinrich Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy steadied SRH with another solid partnership, Klaasen racing to a 22-ball fifty. Reddy fell to Trent Boult for 21, yet Salil Arora’s unbeaten 30 off 10 and Klaasen’s 65* off 30 ensured SRH overhauled the target with ease.
