Ashish Nehra produced a sensational spell of pace bowling after Shikhar Dhawan shone with the bat with a scintillating unbeaten 82 as Sunrisers Hyderabad spanked Mumbai Indians by 85 runs in a lopsided IPL match and jumped to the top of the league table here on Sunday.
Sunrisers posted a challenging 177 for 3 with opener Dhawan remaining not out on 82 off 57 balls, studded with 10 fours and a six, after being put into bat and then senior pacer Nehra (3/15) triggered a Mumbai top-order batting collapse with a 12-ball spell of thee wickets to help the home side notch up an easy win.
Bangladeshi pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who has been in brilliant touch this season, also scalped three wickets for 16 runs as he cleaned up the Mumbai lower order.
With the win, their sixth in nine matches, the Sunrisers are on 12 points. They are level on points with Kolkata Knight Riders but above them on net run rate. Mumbai remained on fifth with 10 points from 10 matches.
Mumbai made a disastrous start in their run chase as they were reduced to 30 for five inside five overs with Nehra scalping three top-order batsmen in 12 balls and they never recovered from there at the ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium.
The defending champions kept on losing wickets in quick succession and were reduced to 54 for 7 at the halfway mark. They did not have any partnership worth the name with 23 being the highest. They finally were all out for 92 in 16.3 overs to slump to an embarrassing defeat.
Parthiv Patel was the first to go for a duck as he was dismissed LBW by a swinging delivery off Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the sixth ball of the innings.
Nehra, who also got the early swing like Bhuvneshwar, then brought Mumbai onto their knees as he took three wickets in two overs, including the big one of captain and opener Rohit Sharma (5) from the first ball of second over.
A lazy-looking Rohit drove loosely a full length delivery outside off and got a big inside edge which clattered into the stumps. Nehra returned for his second over — fourth of the Mumbai innings — and got two scalps to leave the visiting side in tatters. Ambati Rayudu (6) fell to a gem of a delivery from Nehra as the short-pitched ball got some extra bounce which surprised the batsman who initially committed for a shot but later tried to drop his hands. The ball hit the handle of the bat before it flew to Kane Williamson at backward point.
Two balls later, Nehra tempted Jos Buttler (2) with a widish delivery and the batsman, without moving his feet, only prodded to get a thick outside edge to wicketkeeper Naman Ojha.
Earlier, Dhawan once again played the sheet-anchor role to perfection for Sunrisers, notching up his second successive unbeaten knock and his third half century of the season.
The right-handed opener, who struck an unbeaten 47 against Gujarat Lions in the previous match, bettered himself with a 57-ball 82, which was laced with 10 hits to the fence and one over it.
Scoreboard
SUNRISERS HYDERABAD: Shikhar Dhawan (not out) 82, David Warner c Pollard b Hatbhajan 48, Kane Williamson c Rohit b Harbhajan 2, Yuvraj Singh hit wicket McClenaghan 39, Moises Henriques (not out) 1. Extras (LB-2, WD-3) 5. Total (For 3 wkts, 20 overs) 177.
Fall of wickets: 1-85, 2-91, 3-176.
Bowling: Tim Southee 4-0-35-0, Mitchell McClenaghan 4-0-38-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-29-2, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-35-0, Hardik Pandya 1-0-10-0, Kieron Pollard 2-0-23-0, Krunal Pandya 1-0-5-0.
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma b Nehra 5, Parthiv Patel lbw Bhuveshwar 0, Ambati Rayudu c Williamson b Nehra 6, Krunal Pandya c Dhawan b Sran 17, Jos Buttler c Ojha b Nehra 2, Kieron Pollard c Sran b Henriques 11, Hardik Pandya c Ojha b Mustafizur 7, Harbhajan Singh (not out) 21, Tim Southee c Ojha b Mustafizur 3, Mitchell McClenaghan c Henriques b Mustafizur 8, Jasprit Bumrah c Ojha b Sran 6, Extras (W-4, LB-2) 6, Total (all out in 16.3 overs) 92.
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-5, 3-28, 4-30, 5-30, 6-49, 7-50, 8-58, 9-78.
Bowling: B Kumar 3-0-23-1, Ashish Nehra 3-0-15-3, Barinder Sran 3.3-0-18-2, Moises Henriques 4-0-18-1, Mustafizur Rahman 3-0-16-3.
