08 May,2017 11:24 PM IST | Hyderabad | mid-day online correspondent
Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad put on an all-round show to overcome Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in their IPL encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday
Defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad put on an all-round show to overcome Mumbai Indians by seven wickets in their IPL encounter at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday.
For the Hyderabad outfit, Shikhar Dhawan was the star. Chasing 139 to win, the opener anchored the innings reamining unbeaten on 62 off 46 balls in a knock that saw him hit just four boundaries and two sixes.
All-rounder Moises Henriques gave him good support with 44 of 35 balls as Hyderabad overcame the target in the 19th over with 10 balls to spare.
The win for Sunrisers means that the Delhi Daredevils are out of the playoffs race.
Earlier, Hyderabad put up a disciplined bowling effort to restrict Mumbai to 138/7 in their 20 overs.
Winning the toss and electing to bat, Mumbai initially struggled on a slower pitch and needed Rohit Sharma's sublime 67 off 45 deliveries to get to 138/7 in a crucial match for Hyderabad as far as play-offs chances are concerned. Mumbai's second-highest scorer was Parthiv Patel with 23.
The classy stroke-maker that he is, Rohit was the only batsman who could take on against Siddharth Kaul (3/24), Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/29), Mohammad Nabi (1/13) and Rashid Khan (1/22).
Hyderabad captain David Warner exploited the slowish nature of the wicket, as he introduced Afghan off-spinner Nabi in the second over and the latter gave no rooms for the Mumbai batsmen to go for shots.
Nabi struck in his fourth delivery, running through the defence of Lendl Simmons (1). Nabi's efective bowling resulted in another wicket as a desperate Nitish Rana (9) pulled medium pacer Siddharth Kaul to Bhuvneshwar Kumar at mid-off, as Mumbai were reduced to 22/2 in 4.1 overs.
The next delivery could have been Mumbai three wickets down but Parthiv, at the personal score of 10, was dropped by Vijay Shankar at point off Siddharth Kaul.
However, the left-handed batsman couldn't make most of it as exactly 12 deliveries later, he hit straight a Kaul delivery to David Warner at long-on, as Mumbai reeled at 36/3.
Then, captain Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya (15) forged a 60-run stand for the fourth wicket to bail the team out of the trouble.
Rohit started slowly with ones and twos but got into groove once set his eyes in. He hoicked a leg-spinner Rashid Khan delivery over long-on to launch his attack. He targeted medium pacer Moises Enrique in the 14th over and collected three fours in the Australian's over.
In the next over, Pandya lost his wicket, top-edging Rashid to Enriques at cover in the second ball, as Hyderabad lost their fourth wicket for 96.
Rohit then completed his fifty and further threatened the hosts with a four and a six against Mohammed Siraj and Bhuvneshwar respectively.
His innings ended when he played a Kaul delivery on to his stumps in the first delivery of the 19th over.
The edition's leading wicket-taker Bhuvneshwar then did the job for Hyderabad by removing Kieran Pollard (5) and Karn Sharma (5) as Mumbai were restricted to 138/7.
