IPL 2023: Green is a true blue

Though it was all blue at the Wankhede Stadium during the Mumbai Indians MI versus Sunrisers Hyderabad SRH game on Sunday it was a Green that came shining through Australian allrounder Cameron Green 23 smashed a memorable hundred for MI to register an eightwicket win with 12 balls to spare in their last league game a doordie encounterMIrsquos Uttarakhand pacer Akash Madhwal 437 shouldered responsibility perfectly to restrict Hyderabad to 2005 before Green did his star turn The hosts suffered an early blow when opener Ishan Kishan 14 succumbed to Bhuvneshwar Kumarrsquos slower delivery as midon fielder Harry Brook took a good diving catch to his left to have MI at 201 in the third overCameron starts with a bangHowever onedrop batsman Green 47ball 100 not out who opened his account with a welltimed ondriven four off Bhuvneshwar played the same shot off the second ball from leftarm pacer Mayank Dagar SRH brought in pacer Kartik Tyagi as an Impact Player replacing their batting star of the day Mayank Agarwal Green first took a six off him and ended the over with a couple of crisp foursGreen raced to his 50 in 20 balls reaching his halfcentury by smashing legspinner Vivrant Sharma for a six over the bowlerrsquos head The tall righthanderrsquos impact knock was laced with eight fours and as many sixes SRH pacer Umran Malik 041 who made a comeback in this game will probably never forget his third over in which he conceded 20 runsmdashthree fours and a six courtesy GreenWhen midday asked Green whether this was his best knock considering the amount of pressure surrounding the game Green said ldquoYes definitely in the T20 format You never know what is your best innings because you are playing in so many different conditionsrdquoWhile elaborating on the teamrsquos mindset over a winning target Green said they were just thinking of a good win ldquoOur intention was to win the game We were not going to try and chase down the target in the seventh over anyway or anything to try and boost our net runrate We know how close games can get here at Wankhede both teams score really freely out here All we were thinking was to win and put pressure on RCB who were playing tabletoppers Gujarat Titans in the Garden City later in the eveningrdquo Green explainedGreen attracted high praise from SRH head coach Brian Lara ldquoI use the word lsquooutmuscledrsquo He was brutal Someone like that his height his reach the leverage he has when he gets the ball off the middle of the bat itrsquos going to go big A brilliant hundred He bats fearlessly I suppose thatrsquos how he has been allowed to bat in the Mumbai Indians set up We all knew that he has the talent to go big Credit to him to get his first hundredrdquo Lara remarkedAlso ReadMumbai Indians wonrsquot be amusedRohit dropped twiceEven though Green showcased his attacking mood MI skipper Rohit Sharma 37ball 56 was equally good while getting to a 50 in 31 balls However Rohit enjoyed a life when he was on 12 dropped by midwicket fielder Sanvir Singh off pacer Nitish Kumar ReddySanvir provided another life to Rohit when he was on 51 This time Tyagi was the unlucky bowler who witnessed a dropped catch in the covers Rohit smashed eight fours and a six before point fielder Reddy held on to a splendid catch off DagarEarlier put in to bat SRH openers Mayank Agarwal 46ball 83 8x4 4x6 and lefthander Vivrant Sharma 47ball 69 9x4 2x6 put 53 runs on the board in the Powerplay They put on 140 in 135 overs but MI bounced back through Madhwalrsquos disciplined bowlingBrief scoresSRH 2005 in 20 overs M Agarwal 83 V Sharma 69 A Madhwal 437 lost to MI 2012 in 18 overs C Green 100 R Sharma 56 by eight wickets