From the very beginning of the IPL, the Mumbai Indians didn’t play like the team to be in the top two of the points table after 14 matches. They were practically losing every match they were playing and even lost to the low ranked teams like the Kings XI Punjab and the Delhi Daredevils. But the way Rohit Sharma and his men picked themselves up later on in the tournament was unbelievable.
In the second phase of the league, they kept winning games like no one’s business and consolidated their position in the points table with a great degree of planning and execution. They came to stage from where only winning could have given them a way forward. But Mumbai kept their nerve intact.
The last match of the league phase against the Sunrisers Hyderabad could have knocked them out of the tournament on Sunday. But they treated this match like a playoff game and were clinical in their approach.
A combined bowling figures of 5 for 33 from eight overs, bowled by Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan ended the Sunrisers hope of progressing further in the IPL. Eventually, Mumbai ended in second place behind the Chennai Super Kings by beating the Sunrisers by nine wickets in Hyderabad on Sunday night.
Batting first, the Sunrisers were restricted to a low score of 113. After winning the toss, the captain of the home team David Warner elected to bat first. But his decision backfired within seven deliveries.
Both Warner, the highest score of the IPL league stages, and his partner Shikhar Dhawan were back in the pavilion in quick time. Even Moises Henriques couldn’t go beyond a score of 11. The highest scorer of the match for the Sunrisers was KL Rahul.
In reply, Mumbai chased down their winning total in style. Spearheaded by Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons, they made a mockery of Sunrisers’ bowling. They practically left nothing for the middle-order batsmen, as the match got over in the 14th over itself.
