IPL 2019: Match 19, SRH vs MI, Review – Alzarri Joseph registers the best figures in the IPL; knocks the home team out

For the first time in the season, both David Warner and Jonny Bairstow failed. This resulted in the SRH middle-order getting fully exposed and the team was handed over with an embarrassing defeat. On his debut, Alzarri Joseph was terrific for the Mumbai Indians and might have sealed his spot in the eleven. He returned with figures of 6/12 – the best ever in the IPL. The previous record was held by Sohail Tanvir and it took nearly 12 years to break it.

The Sunrisers dropped the catches of Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard in this game. While Rohit didn’t make much of a difference, Pollard took the game away from the opposition. He smoked massive sixes towards the end and snatched the game away from the grip of the home team. After three consecutive wins, the Sunrisers finally lost a game and have themselves to blame for this horrible performance.

Kieron Pollard makes a massive difference towards the end

Bhuvneshwar Kumar created an opportunity for SRH straightaway after he won the toss and elected to bowl first. He managed to find the edge of Rohit Sharma in the first over of the match but Siddarth Kaul failed to catch it. However, this drop didn’t prove to be costly as Mohammad Nabi dismissed Sharma for 11 runs. The Mumbai Indians were reeling with their batsmen queuing back to the pavilion one after the other.

None of the Mumbai batsmen managed to cross an individual score of 20. It seemed that would be the case with Kieron Pollard as well. The Caribbean cricketer offered a catch to Rashid Khan early in his innings but the leg-spinner put it to the ground. He made the most of this reprieve and was destructive in the death overs.

Pollard scored an unbeaten 46 runs off 26 deliveries and did the damage. If it was not for his knock, Mumbai might have been bowled out for below 100. However, he helped the team get to 136/7 in 20 overs which was still a decent score. Kaul picked up two wickets of SRH in this innings.

Alzarri Joseph breathes fire with the ball in hand

It seemed to be a completely different surface when David Warner and Jonny Bairstow walked out to bat. They looked good initially and got the team off to a flyer by hitting some regular boundaries. However, both of them were dismissed within the powerplay itself. While Rahul Chahar dismissed the English cricketer for 15, Alzarri Joseph struck off his first ball in the IPL and dismissed the Australian for 16.

This exposed the middle-order completely and MI forged back into the game. Joseph bowled terrific lines and lengths and got the better of Vijay Shankar as well. Then, Manish Pandey also walked back to the pavilion after scoring 16 runs while Yusuf Pathan got out for a block.

Wickets kept on tumbling after this. Alzarri Joseph was mind boggling on his debut and is definitely a superstar in the making. The Windies pacer picked up wickets and helped Mumbai win the match by 40 runs. At the halfway mark, Mumbai Indians didn’t even seem to be in the contention to win the game. The Pollard drop cost SRH 38 runs and that is what has made the difference.

Brief Scores:

MI: 136/7 in 20 overs (Kieron Pollard 46*, Quinton de Kock 19, Siddarth Kaul 2/34)

SRH: 96/10 in 17.4 overs (Deepak Hooda 20, David Warner 16, Alzarri Joseph 6/12)

Result: Mumbai Indians won the match by runs.

Man of the Match: Alzarri Joseph

Points Table:

Get the latest Cricket News and updates from the Indian Premier League (IPL), Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.