Finance
Suryakumar Yadav scored an unbeaten 102 off 51 balls as Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in Match 55 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
Suryakumar’s first century of the season, and his first since December 2023, came after missing the start of the IPL 2024 due to an injury and surgery for a sports hernia.
Chasing a short target on a pitch that aided the bowlers, the Mumbai Indians were in danger at 31/3 after limiting SRH to 173/8, with Pandya taking 3-31 and Chawla taking 3-33. However, just as it appeared that the Mumbai Indians’ innings might go the same way it did in the previous match, when they lost to the Kolkata Knight Riders chasing a tiny target, Suryakumar Yadav came into his own, displaying his characteristic 360-degree shot-making to lead the Mumbai Indians to victory.
SKY, who had 56 against KKR on Friday, did not leave anything to chance as he played a superb innings, smashing strokes all over the place and scoring his century with a six as Mumbai scored 174/3 in 17.2 overs.
Suryakumar’s undefeated 102 included 12 boundaries and six maximums, and he finished with a strike rate of 200.00, which stunned the Sunrisers players and mesmerized the capacity spectators.
With this victory, the Mumbai Indians moved to eight points from 12 matches, moving them from last to ninth place. SRH remains fourth with 12 points from 11 games, along with Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.
Mumbai Indians got off to a bad start, losing Ishan Kishan (9), Rohit Sharma (4), and Haman Dhir (0) in rapid succession as the hosts fell to 31/3 in the fifth over.
However, Suryakumar Yadav came to the Mumbai Indians’ rescue once more, striking a timely half-century. The Mumbai batter stayed put at the wicket, and unleashed some brilliant shots, playing his usual 360-degree cricket.
Though he appeared to be limping a bit and grimacing after crossing his half-century, Suryakumar changed gears once again, playing some unbelievable shots and raising a century partnership for the fourth wicket with Tilak Varma that pulled Mumbai Indians to safety.
After playing the first couple of overs cautiously, SKY drove Bhuvi through mid-off for his first boundary and a few deliveries later stayed deep in the crease and clipped Cummins for a six, over deep third-mam.
He waded into Marco Jansen in the seventh over, hitting him for two fours and two sixes, whipping, thumping and ramping him to the boundary with relish.
He completed his half-century off 30 balls, hitting five boundaries and three maximums in the process. Suya kept up the scoring rate with back-to-back boundaries off Jansen in the 13th over and with a six off Bhuvi and successive fours off Shahbaz Ahmed in the 15th over and a four off Natarajan took him into the 90s.
Tilak Varma provided an excellent companion for Suryakumar, keeping the other end intact, providing company, supporting his partner, and striking a few good strokes as he finished unbeaten on 37 off 32 balls, including six boundaries.
With 24 needed from 24 balls, Pat Cummins came in, aiming for a wicket to halt Mumbai’s progress, but SKY attacked him, hitting the Australia captain for two boundaries and a six, as well as three pulled boundaries that captivated the capacity audience. Suryakumar Yadav entered the 90s and finished his century with a six, securing Mumbai Indians’ fourth IPL title in 2024.
Earlier, asked to bat first after Mumbai Indians won the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a good start as Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma raised 56 runs for the opening wicket partnership.
On a wicket that was providing even bounce despite the presence of some grass on the surface, the experienced Jasprit Bumrah, as has he done earlier too, provided the breakthrough, coming into the attack as the first-change bowler, sending back Abhishek Sharma for 11.
Mayank Agarwal, brought in to bolster the batting, lasted just six balls. Debutant medium pacer Anshul Kamboj, who opened the bowling with Nuwan Thushara but was taken to 13 runs in his first over and 19 in his second, took Agarwal as his first wicket in IPL when he cleaned him up with a delivery that moved in a bit to beat the leg-side heave that the batter attempted.
Travis Head, who was going strong at the other end but was dropped by Nuwan Thushara at deep third-man off Kamboj. The Australian opener had earlier struck three fours off the 23-year-old Kamboj from Haryana, the first off a free hit, which was also a no-ball. He had started with a four off Thushara in the first over. Piyush Chawla had his measure in the 11th over when Head attempted a slog-sweep off a fullish one and hit it straight to Tilak Varma at backward square leg.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad innings came apart after that as Nitish Kumar /reddy (20), Heinrich Klaasen (2), Shahbaz Ahmed (10), Marco Jansen (17) and Abdul Samad (3) fell in quick succession as they slipped to 136/8 from 90/3 at one juncture.
Pandya opened his account for the day y sending back the dangerous Nitish Reddy, after the batter from Andhra Pradesh had hammered two fours off his bowling in the ninth over. Pandya had his man in his next over when Reddy played a pull off a short one outside off but was beaten by extra pace and skied it to Kamboj grabbed it between point and cover.
he claimed two wickets off the 16th over, sending back Shahbaz Ahmed and Jansen to further hamper SRH’s progress.
Chawla got the crucial wickets of Travis Head and Henriech Klassen, cleaning him up with a fastish one that the wicketkeeper batter played onto his stumps. He also trapped Samad lbw to complete a three-fer.
Skipper Pat Cummins smashed a 17-ball 35, hitting two fours and two sixes to make the score more respectable. But in the end, it wasn’t enough, as Mumbai had SKY step up.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 173/8 in 20 overs (Travis Head 48, Pat Cummins 35 not out; Hardik Pandya 3-31, Piyush Chawla 3-33) lost to Mumbai Indians 174/3 in 17.2 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 102 not out, Tilak Varma 37 not out; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-22) by seven wickets.
Source:IANS
