Sunrisers Hyderabad held their nerve to edge out Mumbai Indians by one wicket in a thrilling IPL encounter here on Thursday.
Number 11 Billy Stanlake lofted MI's Ben Cutting for a boundary off the final of the match as SRH registered their second win of the tournament. Rohit Sharma's men slipped to their second defeat in successive matches.
Chasing a modest target of 148, Hyderabad were cruising along at 73 for 1 before an inexplicable batting collapse left them staring at defeat. It was young Deepak Hooda composed 32 off 25 balls that proved to be precious in the final context of the match. Hooda hit Cutting's first delivery off the final over for a six to ease off the pressure with Stanlake holding fort at the other end.
It was young leg-spinner Mayank Markande (4/23 in 4 overs) who once again impressed one and all with his temperament and control as his spell got Mumbai Indians back in the match despite a modest total on board.
Shikhar Dhawan (45 off 28 balls) and Wriddhiman Saha (22 off 20) made it look like a walk in the park before Markande wreaked havoc. He trapped Saha leg-before with his first ball, a well bowled googly.
Skipper Kane Williamson (6) edged one off Mustafizur Rahaman to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.
From a comfortable 73 for 1, Markande engineered a slide that found Sunrisers reeling at 107 for five. Dhawan went trying to hit a slog sweep to a delivery that bounced a tad more. Manish Pandey danced down the track and mistimed his lofted shot while Shakib Al Hasan played-on off the last ball of Markande's spell. Markande currently holds the 'Purple cap' with seven wickets from two games.
However, young Hooda and the seasoned Yusuf Pathan (14) added 29 runs to bring their team closer to victory. But Mustafzur Rahman brought them back in contention with a brilliant 19th over that cost MI only a run leaving Hyderabad 11 to win off the final over. Thanks to Hooda they achieved it.
Earlier, Hyderabad's bowlers once again put up a stellar show restricting a star-studded Mumbai to 147/8.
The much-vaunted MI batting line-up flattered to deceive as the likes of Evin Lewis (29), Suryakumar Yadav (28) and Kieron Pollard (28) got out after getting set which put brakes on their scoring rate.
The lower middle-order caved in badly as Sunrisers looked as potent an attack even without their premier India bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Such was the dominance of the Hyderabad bowlers that the back 10 of the MI innings fetched them only 69 runs with only 36 coming off last five overs.
Sandeep Sharma (2/25 in 4 overs) proved to be a like-for-like replacement for Bhuvneshwar Kumar with his incisive swing bowling while Siddarth Kaul (2/29 in 4 overs) was once again impressive.
A lot of credit goes to Rashid Khan, who stifled the scoring during the middle overs with brilliant figures of 1 for 13 in 4 overs. Rashid bowled flat and fast with a mix of googlies and flippers. He bowled as many as 18 dot balls.
Skipper Rohit Sharma (11) was out trying to whip a delivery from Billy Stanlake (2/42) that grew big on him and the catch was taken at square leg by Shakib.
Ishan (9)'s maverick approach didn't pay dividends as he failed to make most of a dropped catch by Sandeep as Kaul had him caught at third man.
The normally dangerous Lewis (29, 17 balls) started off well but tried to hit Kaul across the line only to find the off-stump knocked back.
The normally dependable Krunal Pandya closed his face to a Shakib (1/34 in 4 overs) delivery to offer a simple catch.
Stanlake hurried Pollard into ballooning one to Shikhar Dhawan at sweeper cover.
Sandeep then dismissed Suryakumar and Pradeep Sangwan off successive balls to ensure that MI don't cross the 150-run mark.
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