Pushed to the brink, Mumbai Indians put on a batting spectacle at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Friday night.
Their 42-run win proved an effort in vain, though. Ishan Kishan’s blitzkrieg (84; 32b, 4×11, 6×4), Suryakumar Yadav’s splendid 82 (39b, 4×13, 6×3) and Mumbai Indians’ 235/9 – their highest in IPL – was not enough to stop them from exiting the tournament.
It was their own batting indifference early in the IPL that led to a situation where Mumbai had to defeat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 171 runs in the last of the league games to make the playoffs. And Kishan didn’t need a second invitation.
From the moment Kishan took on Mohammed Nabi – the standout in the field with five catches – in the first over, the SRH attack proved mere cannon fodder as runs flowed in a torrent. The second over by Siddarth Kaul set the tone with 18 runs and Jason Holder’s first yielded 22 for Mumbai as the Kishan-Rohit Sharma duo powered to 78 without loss in the first five.
Kishan’s fastest 50 (4×8, 6×2) in IPL was just a matter of 16 deliveries and the 80-run opening partnership in 33 deliveries was assuming dangerous proportions when Rashid Khan struck to get rid of Rohit for 18. Kishan continued to make merry and bludgeoned 68 of his 84 runs in boundaries – many to some ordinary fielding by the Sunrisers.
It was a baptism by fire for Manish Pandey, leading the Sunrisers side for the first time as a last-minute change to the squad saw Kane Williamson and Bhuvneshwar Kumar pull out due to niggles. But if the Sunrisers were happy to get rid of Kishan, they had not reckoned with Yadav.
The No.5 was equally effective before top-edging an Umran Malik express delivery on to his helmet. But before being struck, Yadav put Mumbai back on course after Abhishek Sharma struck twice to be on hat-trick in the 13th over. The last five overs fetched 58 runs for Mumbai.
Jimmy Neesham was also on hat-trick in the 10th over but Mumbai’s hopes had vanished by then as SRH produced their season’s best powerplay of 70 for one. Jason Roy (34) and Abhishek Sharma (33) took them to a position where MI could not better Kolkata Knight Riders’ run-rate.
Manish Pandey (69; 41b, 4×7, 6×2) struck form and SRH finished at 193 for eight.