IPL 2019, SRH vs MI: The best captaincy decision of the day
Sunrisers Hyderabad have been fantastic throughout the season. The Orange Army have looked very convincing in every win of their's and as such, emerged as one of the favourites to win the tournament this time around. They were set to host Mumbai Indians who have the ability to beat any team on their day. While the Mumbai-based franchise has not been consistent this season, they were high on confidence after beating CSK in their last match.
Earlier, SRH captain Bhuvneshwar Kumar won the toss and elected to field first on a pitch which had a bit of help for the bowlers. The decision seemed to pay off as SRH bowlers took early wickets to put MI in a spot of bother. At one stage, MI was 65/5 and was struggling to even reach 100. But then Kieron Pollard launched a counter on the SRH bowlers.
The Mumbai Indians veteran enjoyed his share of luck as SRH's fielders dropped him quite a few times. The West Indian made full use of the opportunity by scoring 46 runs off just 26 balls to take MI score past 130.
While the pitch was tough for batting, SRH had enough firepower in their batting order to chase the score. They started the chase on a great note as they looked to achieve the target comfortably. Then MI captain Rohit Sharma came up with a masterstroke as he introduced leg-spinner Rahul Chahar in the attack.
This was a great move considering Jonny Bairstow had been dismissed by a leg-spinner in each of his first four innings in IPL. The move paid off brilliantly as Bairstow tried to play a big shot but ended up miscuing it to Bumrah at short third man. In the next over, Alzarri Joseph dismissed David Warner which meant that SRH's middle order had to do the job tonight.
They failed to do so, as they kept losing the wickets at regular intervals. Alzarri Joseph was fantastic with the ball, as he picked up six wickets giving away just 12 runs in the process. Eventually, MI won the match by 40 runs to rise to the 4th position in the standings.
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