POST MATCH ANALYSIS
Follow UsKieron Pollard’s late flourish and Alzarri Joseph’s record-breaking spell of 6 for 12 helps Mumbai Indians (MI) register 40-run win over Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in Match 19 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at Hyderabad. SRH will be utterly disappointed with their bowling performance as they had MI on the mat at 97 for 7 in the 18th over and let them add a further 39 runs from the final two overs to let them off the hook and finish at 136 for 7. Their ordinary performance did not stop at just their bowling. They also dropped a couple of catches and also sloppy with their ground fielding. It was once again SRH’s Afghanistan duo of Mohammad Nabi (1 for 13) and Rashid Khan (1 for 27), who played a critical role in choking MI early on. Barring Pollard, no MI player scored even 20.
Given the form SRH were in with the bat, they were expected to chase down 137 with minimum fuss. Openers Jonny Bairstow and David Warner, who had put on three century stands and a fifty stand in their four innings together so far, could not continue their rich vein of form and were dismissed in a span of four deliveries with SRH in a spot of bother at 33 for 2 in the fifth over. Alzarri Joseph and young leggie Rahul Chahar were the stars for MI as they shared eight wickets between them and gave away just 33 runs combined from their 7.4 overs.
Taking the pace off the ball was key today at Hyderabad, which is not how the pitch behaved in the earlier matches of the season at the venue.
SRH kept losing wickets at regular intervals and never really found any sort of momentum throughout their run-chase. In the end, SRH were bowled out for just 96 - easily their worst performance with the bat this season. With this win, MI now move into the fourth place, while SRH remain at second place behind Chennai Super Kings (CSK).
Momentum shift
At the end of the fifth over, MI had lost the wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, which reduced their win% by 11%. SRH created a lot of pressure and prior to that over, Mohammad Nabi had given away just three runs. However, Pollard scored 46 off 26 and scored majority of the 29 runs from the last two overs of the game to give MI a 25% chance of winning the game.
Following the wickets if Jonny Bairstow and David Warner early, SRH’s win% dropped by 25% in the fifth over. From there on, it kept dropping and once Manish Pandey was dismissed in the 11th over, it further dropped by 17%, giving them a 34% of winning the match from there. The win% never went up for SRH after that as Joseph ripped the batting apart.
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