IPL 2018, MI vs SRH: Hits and Misses
Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss for the first time in this season and continued the trend of bowling first against Sunrisers Hyderabad who were bolstered by the return of Shikhar Dhawan.
SRH did get off to a good start as they raced off to 20 in the first 9 deliveries but then started losing wickets at regular intervals. They lost wickets throughout their innings and ended with 118. They also failed to bat out their 20 overs as none of their batsmen could go past the 30-run mark. The MI bowling and fielding was spot on as they restricted SRH to an under-par total.
In reply, MI lost three quick wickets as SRH came back well. At 21 for 3, MI might have felt the pressure, but Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal Pandya joined hands to put the chase back on track. Siddarth Kaul and Rashid Khan picked up wickets at regular intervals and shared 5 wickets between them to help SRH bowl MI out for 87. The visitors completed a memorable win as they defended the second-lowest total in the history of the IPL.
#5 Hit: Mitchell McClenaghan
Mitchell McClenaghan has become a proper T20 specialist after he opted out of the central contract for New Zealand Cricket. But despite being one of the consistent performers for Mumbai Indians in the last few years, he wasn’t picked in the auction this year. However, the 31-year-old was picked by MI as an injury ruled Jason Behrendroff out of the IPL.
He has been amongst the wickets since the start of the season. Playing his fourth game of 2018, McClenaghan bowled the second over of the game, which might have been the turning point.
The Kiwi pacer started off quite poorly as he conceded 5 wides and a boundary in his first three deliveries. But he came back strongly as he took a key wicket of Shikhar Dhawan as he got the latter to drag one back onto his stumps. A couple of balls later, Wriddhiman Saha nicked one to the keeper to give the Kiwi pacer his second wicket of the over. His second over went for 10 runs but he bowled a tight third over to cap off a brilliant powerplay for MI.
McClenaghan finished with figures of 2 for 22 in 3 overs.