If it’s Mumbai Indians, then we are assured of a close finish. If the penultimate ball finish against Chennai Super Kings wasn’t enough, the franchise proved against Sunrisers Hyderabad that their matches are not for the faint-hearted. MI found themselves on the losing end once again in the last ball finish against SRH who achieved their second win on the trot.
To continue the trend of IPL 2018, SRH skipper Kane Williamson won the toss and opted to field first. Rohit Sharma began with a couple of fine shots but an ominous looking skipper was sent back by Billy Stanlake for 11. Evin Lewis started to come into his own and all of a sudden, the score reached 48/1 after 5 overs. But Siddharth Kaul turned it around by dismissing Lewis and Ishan Kishan in the next over.
The pressure was applied in the next few overs by the SRH line-up that was without Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Krunal Pandya departed in the hunt to up the ante. Suryakumar Yadav and Kieron Pollard hung in there for a while and added 38 runs for the 5th wicket. Pollard began to open his shoulders and MI got to a decent position at 100/4 after 14 overs.
Just when the Caribbean seemed like unleashing, Stanlake accounted for his wicket for 28. The SRH bowlers didn’t offer much in the last overs and as a result, Ben Cutting, Yadav and Pradeep Sangwan fell at the death. MI somehow managed to achieve 147/8 at the end of 20 overs which was not a big score yet it gave the bowlers something to bowl at.
The SRH chase began on a positive note as Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha went after the bowling from the outset. After 6 overs, the score was already reading 56 without loss. Mayank Markande, the leg-spinner who had impressed in MI’s last game, just added to his reputation with another good outing.
He removed Saha for 22 in his first over and brought life to the game. Mustafizur Rahman sent back Williamson and then Markande came back to pick up Dhawan for 45. He added to his wickets tally by scalping Manish Pandey and Shakib Al Hasan. The leggie single-handedly kept his side in the game.
But the initial flourish from the openers helped SRH’s cause in the latter part as despite wickets falling in a bundle, didn’t put much pressure on Deepak Hooda and Yusuf Pathan due to a paltry required rate. But Jasprit Bumrah struck twice in the 18th over to swing the pendulum once again.
With 12 required from the last 2 overs, Mustafizur removed Siddharth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma and gave away just 1 run in the penultimate over. Hooda was still and the crease with 11 to get from the final over with 1 wicket in hand. He smashed a six off the first ball off Ben Cutting.
A dramatical next 4 balls followed and Stanlake found himself on the strike on the last ball with 1 run to get. With every fielder inside the circle to save the single, the tall man struck it over the in-field to collect the winning run. Another close game and MI found themselves on the losing end once again. On the other hand, SRH extended their winning run and made it 2 in 2.
Match Summary
Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and opted to bowl first
Mumbai Indians:Â 147/8 in 20 overs
Evin Lewis 29 (17), Kieron Pollard 28 (23)
Sandeep Sharma 25/2 (4), Siddharth Kaul 29/2 (4)
Sunrisers Hyderabad:Â 148/9 in 20 overs
Shikhar Dhawan 45 (28), Deepak Hooda 32* (25)
Mayank Markande 23/4 (4), Mustafizur Rahman 24/3 (4)
Sunrisers Hyderabad won by 1 wickets
Player of the Match:Â Rashid Khan
Here’s how Twitter reacted to the nail-biting finish
I guess you get used to the tension if you are an @mipaltan fan!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 12, 2018
Big Billy Stanlake has played the two most crucial balls of his career…..
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 12, 2018
Top spell by Mayank Markande. That's two games in a row now. Other teams will be studying him really closely now
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) April 12, 2018
Got too close to comfort in the end but that was T20 Cricket at its best. The bowlers did an excellent job in restricting MI to 147 & in the end Hooda held his nerve under pressure.Special mention to young Markande,looks a promising prospect. #OrangeArmy is a happy army #SRHvMI
— VVS Laxman (@VVSLaxman281) April 12, 2018
There isn’t a better bowling line-up than SRH in this #IPL. Have all the bases covered and still have back-ups #SRHvMI
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 12, 2018
Sunrisers' win tonight is the first ever win in #IPL by a side off the last ball of the match with just one wicket to spare!#SRHvMI #IPL2018
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) April 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/pragyanojha/status/984497487489548288
Mumbai Indians have played two matches in #IPL2018 and have lost both by one wicket – off the penultimate ball vs CSK & off the last ball vs Sunrisers today!#SRHvMI
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) April 12, 2018
Billy Stanlake (5* his highest score in any format) has never hit a boundary in his career in 43 matches, 13 innings!#SRHvMI#IPL2018#IPL
— Mohandas Menon (@mohanstatsman) April 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/Gmaxi_32/status/984496459499429888
@mipaltan keep finding themselves on the wrong end. But credit to them to make a match what looked like one-sided in favor of @SunRisers
And how good is @MarkandeMayank #SRHvMI— Shubham Khare (@shubhamkhare71) April 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/984496151037489152
https://twitter.com/harbhajan_singh/status/984479269844762624
Wonder why Cutting did not attempt the Yorker against Stanlake. Pressure? No 11 batsman after all! @SunRisers had almost muffed it up. A story of almost all round.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) April 12, 2018
https://twitter.com/KP24/status/984496896881209344
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