Hyderabad: A rampant Mumbai Indians rode on Rohit Sharma’s second consecutive fifty and Trent Boult’s fiery pace to pulverise a hapless Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.
MI’s fourth win on the trot, which took them to the third spot on the points table, came after SRH posted a below-par 143/8 and Rohit making the most of the perfect batting conditions to score 70 off 46 balls.
MI scored 146/3 in 15.4 overs to win the match with 26 balls to spare, with Suryakumar Yadav hitting a 19-ball 40 not out.
But it was Boult and Deepak Chahar who tilted the tie in MI’s favour early. Both picked up two new-ball wickets each as SRH posted the lowest powerplay score of the season 24/4.
The fate of the contest was all but sealed when SRH crumbled to 35/5 following an embarrassing collapse. Despite Heinrich Klaasen’s 71 and Abhinav Manohar’s 43, the hosts did not have enough runs on the board to challenge MI’s batting might.
The five-time winners recorded their third consecutive win while chasing.
It was also their second win over SRH in the season, having beaten them by four wickets last week in Mumbai.
India’s Test and ODI captain Rohit announced his intentions when he hoisted an off-cutter from Pat Cummins over deep square leg fence for a six and followed it up with a
four in the third over.
On a flat and hard deck here, Rohit was quick to read the conditions, having come on to the field as an impact sub late in the second half.
When Jaydev Unadkat took the pace off the ball in the fourth over, Rohit was quick to pounce on it, lifting it powerfully over cover for his second six.
Rohit blended defence and attack deftly for another high quality knock which shut the doors completely on SRH.
Brief Scores: SRH: 143/8 in 20 overs (Klaasen 71, Manohar 43; Boult 4/26, Chahar 2/12); MI: 146/3 in 15.4 overs (Rohit 70, , Suryakumar 40*).