In the 55th match of the Indian Premier League, Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 42 runs. MI concluded the season on a positive but couldn’t qualify for the playoffs for the first time in the past three years.
Mumbai Indians won the toss, which still kept them in contention for the playoffs. The MI-skipper had no choice but to choose to bat first. Ishan Kishan (84) gave an incredible start to the defending champions in the powerplay and decimated the Sunrisers Hyderabad’s bowling unit. Kishan’s assault early in the innings gave a dream start to MI in a much-needed fixture. After the southpaw’s departure, the five-time IPL champions’ momentum was hindered as they lost wickets in the middle overs. Suryakumar Yadav (82), who was lately struggling with his form, gave himself some time in the middle and tore apart the SRH’s bowling lineup. A strong finish helped MI to set up a mammoth target of 236. The Rohit Sharma-led team had to wrap up SRH’s innings at a total of 65 to qualify for the playoffs. The Mukesh Ambani-backed MI couldn’t register an impossible 175-run victory but had an upper hand throughout the second innings. The SRH-batsmen took advantage of the batting-friendly surface but Mumbai kept taking wickets at regular intervals to restrict the former from attacking.
Manish Pandey (69) was the highest contributor with the bat for SRH, the new skipper played till the end and took his team as close as possible to the total.
Following this fixture, MI (5) and SRH (8) finished their IPL 2021 campaign with 14 and eight points each.
Scorecard:
Mumbai Indians: 235/9, Overs 20, Ishan Kishan (84), Suryakumar Yadav (82), Abhishek Sharma (2/4)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 193/8, Overs 20 Manish Pandey (69*), Jason Roy (34), Jimmy Neesham (2/28)