Dhawan, Saha give Sunrisers good start
HYDERABAD: Sunrisers Hyderabad remained in a dominant position against Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Having restricted Rajasthan Royals (RR) for a mere 125/9 in their tournament opener and cantering to win by nine wickets, SRH bowlers continued the impressive work by restricting Mumbai Indians to 148/9 in 20 overs.
Chasing the modest target, Shikhar Dhawan (34*) and Wriddhiman Saha (21*) took SRH to 56 for no loss after six overs.
Rashid Khan was all over the Mumbai Indians batsmen in his spell of 4-0-13-1, whereas Siddharth Kaul, SRH debutant Sandeep Sharma and Billy Stanlake all claimed two wickets a piece to keep the Rohit Sharma-led team under pressure.
It was yet another disappointing outing with the bat for Mumbai Indians as none of them could cross the 30-run mark, with Evin Lewis (29), Kieron Pollard (28) and Suryakumar Yadav (28) all failing to make most of their starts.
Such was the domination of SRH bowlers that despite the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and a couple of dropped catches — Rohit given a lifeline when he was yet to score and Ishan Kishan when he was on eight — Mumbai could not attain any momentum whatsoever for the second time in the tournament.
Earlier, it was Krunal Pandya’s 41 not out against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) that had propelled Mumbai to a competitive score in the first match.
But on Thursday, without the services of Hardik Pandya who had twisted his ankle last week, Mumbai just could not produce any fightback with the bat.
In their reply, SRH batsmen started off with ease as their in-form opener Shikhar Dhawan raced to a 18-ball 34 with six fours, continuing from where he had left off against Rajasthan at 77 not out.
Ben Cutting was guilty of not only spilling a catch off Saha’s bat allowing a boundary as the ball rolled down to the ropes in the third over off Pradeep Sangwan — which in a way summed up how the game had panned out for Mumbai a little over halfway through in the contest.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 147/8 in 20 overs (E Lewis 29). Sunrisers Hyderabad 56/0 in six overs (S Dhawan 34*, W Saha 21*). Scores incomplete.