Visitors Sunrisers Hyderabad put up a impressive show with the ball by picking up wickets at regular intervals to restrict hosts Mumbai Indians to 157/8 in 20 overs in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2015 encounter at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
The final over the Mumbai innings saw Sunrisers bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar picking up two wickets in consecutive deliveries, most importantly the wicket of Kieron Pollard (33 off 24 balls) who was looking dangerous at the death overs.
Bhuvneshwar was the pick of the Sunrisers bowlers with figures of 4-0-26-3. Other who impressed were Praveen Kumar with figures of 4-0-35-2, Steyn also had two wickets in his name, finishing with 4-0-38-2, spinner Karn Sharma finished with 4-0-30-1.
Opting to bat first, home side Mumbai Indians got off to a modest start with the openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel scoring at a run-rate just over six an over.
But Sunrisers speedster Dale Steyn brought the breaks on the scoring when Parthiv (17 off 17 balls) was caught by Hanuma Vihari when the score was 42 in 5.4 overs.
Incoming batsman Unmukt Chand also didn't last long as he was caught at mid wicket by Shikher Dhawan off the bowling off Preveen Kumar. He scored five off four balls, striking a four off his first ball.The team score being 49/2 in seven overs.
With the dismissal of Chand, came in skipper Rohit Sharma. But his partner at the crease opener Simmons was looking fluent with the bat as the West Indian struck the first six of the innings in 9.4 overs off spinner Karn Sharma.
Couple of good strikes from Simmons and Rohit helped team score 72/2 in 10 overs.
As the West Indian was looking set to put up a good score and take the game away from the visitors, bowling change by Sunrisers skipper David Warner worked wonders for the team as the batsman was clean bowled by Steyn. Simmons scored 51 off 42 balls, striking four boundaries and one six.
Simmons dismissal reduced Mumbai to 100/3 in 12.3 overs but it paved the introduction of another West Indian Kieron Pollard.
But wickets feel at regular intervals, putting a break on the scoring.
Just an over after the wicket of Simmons, Mumbai suffered a huge blow when skipper Rohit (24 off 14 balls) was caught at long on trying to hit a six by Bhuvneshwar Kumar off the bowling off Karn Sharma.
Ambati Rayudu who replaced Rohit failed with the bat again, as he continued his poor run in the ongoing season. He scored just seven as he was caught by Trent Boult off the bowling off Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Harbhajan Singh too perished early to leave Mumbai Indians struggling at 128/6 in 17.3 overs.
