Mumbai Indians

Starring performances from Mumbai Indians’ Caribbean superstars ensured we beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 40 runs at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Saturday. Kieron Pollard had earlier smashed 46* from 26 balls to give Mumbai a competitive total before Alzarri Joseph steamrolled SRH’s batsmen with figures of 6 for 12.

Hyderabad lost their first wicket in the fourth over courtesy of Rahul Chahar. The young spinner got rid of Jonny Bairstow after SRH had made a good start and put 33 on the scoreboard. David Warner followed his opening partner in the next over after inside-edging the first ball from debutant Alzarri Joseph onto his stumps.

MI were on top at this stage and it looked like we would get our third wicket in the sixth over when Manish Pandey’s attempt at a maximum off Chahar’s bowling went up in the air. Pollard though failed to hold onto the catch as SRH breathed a momentary sigh of relief. Vijay Shankar wasn’t as lucky, however, and was dismissed in the subsequent over after Hardik Pandya held a catch off Joseph’s bowling.

Deepak Hooda joined Pandey at the crease and duo looked to steady the ship for SRH. Despite spending some time in the centre, Pandey had to walk back to the hut in the 11th over after his attempted pull off Jason Behrendorff went straight into Rohit Sharma’s palms.

New batsman Yusuf Pathan then followed Pandey back to the dugout in the next over as Chahar picked up his second wicket. Hooda’s struggle in the middle also ended a few overs later when he dragged on a delivery from Joseph onto his stumps for the debutants third scalp of the night. The young Antiguan bounced out Rashid Khan with his next delivery as MI inched closer to victory. He completed the formalities in the 18th over by picking up his fifth and sixth wickets of night to end with the best bowling figures in IPL history.

In the first innings of the evening, Mumbai’s batsmen found runs difficult to come by and lost Rohit as well as Suryakumar Yadav inside the power play. Quinton de Kock then fell in the ninth over with MI on 43.

The loss of de Kock brought Krunal Pandya out to the middle, but the all-rounder lasted just 13 balls before top-edging a bouncer. Ishan Kishan had been at the other end watching all this transpire, however, his stay in the middle came to an end in the 13th over after he was run out by Vijay Shankar.

Pollard and Hardik had to bide their time before trying to attack Hyderabad’s bowlers. Unfortunately, Hardik found a boundary rider while trying to clear the ropes shortly after hitting a maximum a few deliveries prior. Pollard almost perished in similar fashion, but luckily Rashid Khan failed to hold on to the catch.

Rahul Chahar then came to the crease and hit two quick boundaries before edging one to the wicketkeeper. Just when it looked like Mumbai were heading towards a modest total, up stepped Kieron Pollard and smashed three huge sixes in the penultimate over of the innings to add some much-needed impetus. The final over saw Pollard help MI score 19 to take our total to 136. He smashed two fours and a six in the last over to give our fans something to shout about and our bowlers something to defend.

Brief score: Mumbai Indians 136 for 7 in 20 overs (Pollard 46*; Siddarth Kaul 2/34) beat Sunrisers Hyderabad 96 all out in 17.4 overs (Hooda 20; Joseph 6/12) by 40 runs

Man of the Match: Alzarri Joseph

Our next match will be against Kings XI Punjab at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.