SRL 2020 | MI vs SRH Evaluation Chart - Rookies Sanjay and Virat power SRH to famous victory

Winning the toss and opting to bowl first, Sunrisers Hyderabad’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar set the tone with the ball in the very first over, conceding just 1 run, and at the halfway mark, the bowlers of the Orange Army had restricted the hosts to just 55/3. At this point, it looked like MI were headed for a below-par score. However, a fine 67-run partnership between Chirs Lynn and Kieron Pollard - where the former scored an unbeaten 71 - and a late blitz from Hardik Pandya propelled MI to 167 off their 20 overs.

In reply, the visitors had the worst start imaginable, losing skipper David Warner on the very first ball, but a counter-attacking cameo from Jonny Bairstow kept things afloat for SRH, despite them losing wickets at regular intervals. A valuable 51-run partnership between Vijay Shankar and Bairstow set the platform for the Warner-led side to stroll to victory and eventually, despite losing Bairstow at a crucial stage, youngsters Virat Singh and Sanjay Yadav, who put on an impressive unbeaten 38-run partnership, took the visitors over the line. The win makes it 2 in 2 matches for SRH after their victory against RCB on Friday.

While there were several moments in the match which indicated a potential momentum swerve towards MI, including the first-ball wicket of Warner and Bumrah’s outstanding 6th over where he conceded just one run, eventually, Hardik Pandya’s abomination of an over in the 13th sealed the deal for SRH. With his brother Krunal having sent the danger man Bairstow back to the hut in just the previous over, Hardik had the golden opportunity to further strangle SRH, but he ended up shockingly conceding 25 runs. By the time he got his jumpers back from the umpire, the equation was down to 42 off 42 balls and there was no coming back for MI. 

Extras, extras and extras - that was the flavour of SRH’s bowling today. The orange army bowled not one, not two, but THREE no-balls and, in addition to that, also conceded 4 wides. For a team - and a bowling unit - that takes pride in discipline, the display of Warner’s men with the ball today was unforgivable. They could consider themselves lucky to have come out unscathed, for, on any other day, this could have been catastrophic.

Unlike their bout against Delhi on Friday, the Mumbai openers got off to a sluggish start today at the Wankhede. Rohit could only score 4 off his first 10 balls and despite threatening to take off after hitting a six off Sandeep Sharma, his innings soon came to a premature end in the very same over. De Kock followed suit two overs later and by the end of the first 6 overs, they scrambled their way to just 37/2. A good 8-12 runs short of where they ideally should have been.

Mumbai are a team known for their middle-order prowess and despite starting off the first 4 overs extremely cautiously - scoring just 18 runs - the duo of Lynn and Pollard picked up pace as they got more comfortable with Rashid’s mystery spin and eventually, ended up collecting 75 runs between overs 7 to 15. They did so by going after SRH’s sixth bowler Vijay Shankar - taking 14 runs off his solitary over - and by also unsettling Rashid, scoring at 9.75 RPO off the Afghan maestro.

The task at hand for the Mumbai bowlers was an extremely arduous one - they needed to defend 31 off the last 5 overs. And while the bowlers did everything they could to keep the SRH batsmen in check, even bringing the equation down to 18 off 15 balls at one point, the composure of Sanjay Yadav and Virat Singh proved too much as the youngsters bulldozed their way through in the final two overs. Can’t fault the MI bowlers’ efforts, though. 

Right from ball one, there was no shortage of entertainment. While there were dull passages of play, notably in the middle overs of both teams, thankfully, they were shadowed by the brilliance of Lynn, Pandya and Bairstow who put on a show at the Wankhede Stadium. From a fan’s perspective, an extremely satisfying contest.