The final league match between defending champions Mumbai Indians and the Sunrisers Hyderabad was supposed to be a dead rubber-sort of a game. MI needed to win by 171 runs or more to qualify and SRH being well and truly out of the race.
The game was held simultaneously with the RCB-DC match and turned out to be one of the most entertaining fixtures of the entire tournament, with 428 runs being scored by both sides put together, but did not have any significant bearing on the situation of the tournament as Mumbai won by 42 runs.
Another surprising change saw Manish Pandey lead the SRH side, with captain Kane Williamson making way for the Afghan all-rounder Mohammed Nabi.
Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and decided to bat first, which incidentally, was the only way the side could sneak into the playoff spots. Had Hyderabad batted first, Mumbai would be eliminated before a ball was bowled.
The mindset from the MI camp was simple – attack from ball one. Ishan Kishan gave Mumbai a rollicking start, smashing his very first ball for six over mid-wicket. Some scintillating batting from the youngster saw Mumbai reach 78/0 in just five overs, Kishan having scored 60 in just 19 deliveries.
Looking to continue the good start, Sharma was dismissed by Rashid Khan in the sixth over. The dangerous Hardik Pandya was sent up the order to try and keep up the scoring rate but couldn’t do too much as he lost his wicket cheaply after scoring just ten runs. Kishan was also dismissed in the ninth over after scoring a magnificent 84 off just 32 balls, leaving Mumbai at 131/3 after the first ten overs.
The carnage continued as Suryakumar Yadav stepped into the crease, but wickets kept falling at regular intervals. The 31-year-old single-handedly carried Mumbai throughout the second part of their innings, as he made a wonderful 82 off 36, including 13 boundaries and three sixes.
The Mumbai lad was instrumental in taking his side to a mammoth total of 235/9 at the end of 20 overs, giving them an outside chance of qualifying, if they could bowl out the Sunrisers for under 64. All-rounder Jason Holder ended up with figures of 4/52 in his four overs.
It looked like a good batting track at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, as the Sunrisers got off to a wonderful start, with Roy and Abhishek Sharma adding 47 runs in the first four overs. Roy lost his wicket after scoring an entertaining 34 off 21 balls, more or less ending Mumbai’s qualification hopes. The powerplay ended with Sunrisers at 70/1, having built a good platform to chase down the massive target perhaps.
However, SRH could not capitalise on the good start and lost three wickets in the space of 14 balls, something that has become an all too familiar sight for them this season. Abhishek Sharma, Mohammed Nabi, and Abdul Samad gave their wickets away, leaving Hyderabad at 100/4 at the nine over-mark. Priyam Garg showed some promise, scoring a couple of boundaries and a six, as he and veteran Karnataka batsman Manish Pandey stitched together a 56-run stand before the eventual fall of Garg.
The uphill task of getting 80 runs in the last five overs proved to be too much for the Hyderabad side, as they ended up losing Holder, Rashid Khan, and Saha in no time, while also failing to make a significant dent on the asking rate.
Pandey struck a couple of boundaries in the final over from Trent Boult, as both sides ended the campaign with very few positives to take home from this edition of the IPL. Kishan was named Man of the Match for his brilliant performance with the bat.
Brief scores
Mumbai Indians: 235/9 in 20 overs (Kishan 84; Yadav 82; Holder 4/52; Sharma 2/4)
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 193/8 in 20 overs (Pandey 69; Roy 34;Jimmy Neesham 2/38; Jasprit Bumrah 2/39)
MI defeated SRH by 42 runs.
