MUMBAI, India (AP) — Mumbai Indians squeezed the batting powerhouse of Sunrisers Hyderabad on a sluggish home wicket to notch a four-wicket win in the Indian Premier League on Thursday.
Hyderabad struggled to reach 162-5 on a slowish Wankhede pitch and Mumbai, which won the toss and elected to field, eased to 166-6 with 11 balls to spare for their third win in seven games.
Hyderabad lies at No. 9 just ahead of last-place Chennai Super Kings with two wins and five defeats.
Hyderabad top-order misfires
Abhishek Sharma, who scored a century in Hyderabad’s chase of 246 against Punjab Kings in the last game, top-scored with 40 but not before Will Jacks dropped him of the first ball in the slips.
A thick outside edge of Sharma’s bat burst through the hands of Jacks as he couldn't grab a catch over his head.
Jasprit Bumrah (1-21) bowled two excellent overs in the powerplay and kept both Travis Head and Sharma quiet before captain Hardik Pandya got the breakthrough when he had Sharma caught at deep point.
Jacks made up for his missed opportunity through his off-spin bowling and claimed 2-14 of his three economical three overs after spinner Karn Sharma seemed to have split his webbing in the third over while going for a low catch at midwicket and could not bowl.
Jacks first had Ishan Kishan (2) stumped off a delivery that spun away from the left-hander and Head couldn’t capitalize after he got caught of Pandya’s no-ball in the 10th over as he holed out at long-off of Jacks in the 12th over.
Hyderabad was stuttering at 113-4 in the 17th over when Trent Boult dismissed Nitish Kumar Reddy in his return spell before Heinrich Klaasen provided a late impetus.
Klaasen smashed 37 off 28 balls and Aniket Verma hit two sixes in his brisk unbeaten 18 off eight balls as Hyderabad managed to cross the 150-run mark late in the death overs.
Jacks leads Mumbai chase
All the Mumbai top-order batters got starts before being deceived by the variable bounce of the wicket. Impact player Rohit Sharma (25) hit three sixes in his rapid 26 off 16 balls while Jacks followed his brilliant bowling with a top-score of 36.
Sharma fell to Pat Cummins (3-26) low full toss when he got caught in the covers but his early cameo gave Mumbai a perfect start to the chase.
Ryan Rickelton made 31 off 23 balls before he got caught at backward point by Head of Harshal Patel’s off-cutter as the double-paced wicket made things difficult for the batters.
However, Suryakumar Yadav (26) added a brisk 52 with Jacks and smashed two fours and two sixes before Cummins dismissed both batters with his deceptive pace in successive overs.
Mumbai had a bizarre finish to the game when Eshan Malinga picked up the wickets of Pandya (21) and Naman Dhir (0) in the 18th over with the home team needing just one run for victory before Tilak Varma (21 not out) swept spinner Ansari for the winning boundary.
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The Associated Press
