Mumbai: Within a span of a week, the IPL has yo-yoed from a batting powershow to breathtaking bowling Powerplays to returning back to what else but sixes galore. On Wednesday, at the storied Wankhede — which the Mumbai Indians have never truly converted into an impregnable fortress — their season nearly crumbled following a six-wicket defeat – their sixth loss in eight matches – with Sunrisers Hyderabad chasing down 243 runs with 8 balls to spare.
They began brightly with the bat. It took them 22 players and 4 opening combinations to finally find one to take the attack to the opposition. Ryan Rickleton, the other left-hander from South Africa wouldn’t even have played but for Quinton de Kock’s injured wrist. Will Jacks took time off from cricket after the T20 World Cup. But in his first match back for MI, the English all-rounder showed he hadn’t lost any of his hitting range. In Rohit Sharma’s continued absence, Rickleton and Jacks came together to post MI’s second most productive Powerplay of the season and fastest to 100 (in 7.4 overs).
With a short boundary in play, SRH bowlers tried to factor in the ground dimensions. But the early exchanges at the Wankhede were less likely to be dictated by boundary size and more by assistance off the pitch or in the air. The pitch, however, was excellent. MI openers got stuck into the inexperienced SRH pacers – Praful Hinge and Sakib Hussain.
Even outside the field restrictions, Ricketon toyed with the bowling. Showing a heavy on-side bias, Rickleton cleared the boundary on eight occasions – each time between square leg and long on. SRH had made a tactical change bringing in Harsh Dube’s left-arm finger spin in place of Shivang Kumar’s unorthodox left-arm wrist spin. Dube couldn’t control his bowling and conceded 50 runs in three overs.
Rickelton got to his hundred in the 15th over off 44 balls – the fastest from an overseas MI opening talent. It was still a touch short of the kind of crazy scoring rates seen in recent high-scoring matches.
Even as the MI batting group kept the pressure on throughout, their only failing was not converting expensive overs into even bigger overs. They had only one 20-plus run over in the innings, the kind of markers that set teams apart.
Although Hardik Pandya 31 (15b) finally put some hitting power on show, they would have liked to do more damage in the death overs than the 42 runs they got in the final 4 overs. The pick of SRH’s bowlers was Eshan Malinga (4-0-29-1) who kept a check on the scoring with his basket of slower balls.
MI’s second best Powerplay of the season was surpassed comfortably by SRH openers. The top order in orange had been on fire in any case. Travis Head was the exception; he had been saving his best for this evening. Pace has never troubled Head much, and the left-hander dominated SRH’s 92-run, six-over blitz. Even Jasprit Bumrah was not spared.
At the 8-over mark with SRH scoring at 16 runs per over, the match had all the makings of a one-sided monstrous run chase, similar to many others seen in the tournament. That’s when Allah Gazanfar’s mystery balls in the 9th over dismissed Abhishek 45 (24b) and Ishan Kishan (0), raising some hope for the home team.
On occasions, Head was given too much room. At other times, he created his own. With a rampaging SRH opener in form, MI seemed to have no chance. The cushion of a huge score on board was beginning to lose its hold. That’s when on the back of Ghazanfar magic, Hardik conjured some luck of his own to send the dangerous Head back for 76 (30b) with a dipping full toss outside off.
Head could have been out in the third over, though, when Trent Boult got one to swing and caught the underedge of the left-hander’s bat. But neither the bowler nor the wicket-keeper picked up the sound that showed up in the replay. In many ways, the moment was indicative of MI’s dismal year.
The three quick wickets proved to be a false dawn as Heinrich Klaasen’s unbeaten 65 (30 balls) dismantled the spin attack. The South African picked up Ghazanfar off lengths that few others in the game can. MI’s biggest threat on the day was neutralised, the home side had nowhere to hide. The returning 13th over from Bumrah was also attacked, extending the pace spearhead’s below par showings.
