Suryakumar, Hardik-Chawla crush SRH to raise hopes of mid-table contenders

A sensational unbeaten 102 off 51 balls from Suryakumar Yadav on the back of Piyush Chawla and Hardik Pandya's three-wicket hauls helped Mumbai Indians (MI) to their fourth win of the season as they got the better of Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets in Mumbai. The win also lifted MI out of the bottom of the table to ninth.

A run fest was promised at Wankhede Stadium with SRH visiting. Who would have doubted this considering the last time SRH and MI clashed, record books were rewritten. Instead, the MI bowlers came to the fore as SRH were restricted to 173 for 8. In reply, the SRH bowlers also got the new ball to move around and got three powerplay wickets.

But Suryakumar decided to do Suryakumar things as he launched an attack on the SRH bowlers, Marco Jansen in particular, to get things back on track. Tilak Varma played the perfect foil with 37 not out off 32 adding 143 off 79 balls with Suryakumar to help MI seal the win in 17.2 overs.

First nine balls: 26 for 0.

Next 19 balls: 6 for 3.

Chasing 174 at a venue where scores in excess of 180 have been breached in six out of ten innings this season coming into this game did not feel like a daunting ask, but the SRH bowlers made life extremely tough for the batters. There was a lot of swing and seam available and, initially, the bowlers even struggled to control the swing. They bowled 18 extras in the first three overs, but once they found their lengths, batting started to feel arduous. The ball zipped off the surface, the batters were beaten multiple times, and wickets started to fall.

It was the Test-match length that got the SRH quicks the wickets. Jansen first struck with a seaming delivery that Ishan Kishan could only edge to first slip. And when it's Test-match length we are talking about, how can Pat Cummins not come into the picture? Cummins bowled a sensational first over, a wicket-maiden in which Rohit Sharma was dismissed off a big top edge. Bhuvneshwar Kumar then got Naman Dhir for a nine-ball duck, dismissed flashing to first slip.

Not a single run was scored off the bat between overs 1.3 and 4.4 with MI all over the place.

After three overs in which nine runs were scored, Suryakumar decided enough was enough. He first took on Cummins before reserving special treatment for Jansen. He went 4, 4, 6 in the seventh over before swatting Jansen over fine leg for a flat six as overs six and seven yielded a combined 38 runs. From 4 off 7, Suryakumar moved to 32 off 14 in no time and all the initial momentum that SRH had gained was lost.

Tilak played the role of the second fiddle to perfection even as Suryakumar kept on going. In all, Suryakumar walloped Jansen for 32 runs off nine balls, which included four fours and two sixes, and he reached his fifty off 30 balls.

There were a few concerned faces in the MI dugout - and no doubt among people interested in India's fortunes at the T20 World Cup next month - when Suryakumar was seen limping for a bit, but the big hits didn't cease. A Bhuvneshwar slower ball was mowed over long-on before Shahbaz Ahmed was swept twice in two balls. Suryakumar then raced from 82 to 96 in three balls going 4, 4, 6 in the 17th over. And then, with six needed to win and four for his century, he backed away and went inside out over the covers off T Natarajan to finish the job.

This was Suryakumar's second IPL hundred, and sixth in T20 cricket.

It was a strange sort of powerplay with the ball for MI. They didn't bowl badly but hardly found any luck going their way. Travis Head got going with an inside-edged four past leg stump in the first over off Nuwan Thushara and then one more in the second over off debutant Anshul Kamboj. Kamboj should have had his maiden IPL wicket in the next over when he had Head's off stump splat on the ground, but he had over-stepped. Head ended up taking him for 19 in the over, and SRH were away.

Jasprit Bumrah took out Abhishek Sharma, caught behind for 11 off 16, but SRH still managed to reach 56 for 1 in the powerplay. MI would have been miffed because they drew 18 false shots in the first six overs, but only got one wicket to show for their effort.

Kamboj had another chance to send back Head, but Thushara failed to hang on to a relatively simple chance at deep third in the eighth over. The 23-year-old Kamboj finally had luck going his way when a bail-trimmer sent Mayank Agarwal packing. Thereon it was the Chawla and Hardik show.

At 88 for 2 after ten, SRH were placed comfortably, but Chawla changed things by picking up Head for a 30-ball 48. A slog sweep was smashed straight to deep backward square leg before Hardik took out Nitish Reddy with a short-length ball that was spooned straight up. Chawla then had Heinrich Klassen playing on as SRH slipped from 90 for 2 to 96 for 5 in 11 balls.

Jansen and Shahbaz Ahmed resisted for a bit, but Hardik had them back in the 16th over with SRH at 125 for 7 and soon 136 for 8 with Chawla snaring Abdul Samad. That SRH even breached the 170-run mark was down to Cummins' unbeaten 17-ball 35.

Eventually, it wasn't enough.