Twitter Reactions: Jasprit Bumrah, Trent Boult rattle Sunrisers Hyderabad as they record a hat-trick of losses

Entered into the contest with an even-steven record against each other, things looked even for the most part before an untrustworthy middle-order of Sunrisers Hyderabad was left exposed against the might of Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult.

Having lost two on the bounce, they made a sea of changes as Wriddhiman Saha, Jason Holder, T Natarajan, and Shahbaz Nadeem made way for Virat Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Mujeeb ur Rahman, and Khaleel Ahmed.

Rohit Sharma, who only swapped Adam Milne with Marco Jansen, called correctly and opted to set a target on a track that he judged as “sluggish”. In a bid to be above the opposition right from the start, alongside Quinton de Kock, Sharma opened his hands as he compensated for the two forgettable outings.

Mumbai loses the plot after a crisp start

De Kock got running even before his partner, slapping a couple of boundaries in the opening over, while Rohit joined the party, hitting a four and six off consecutive deliveries against Mujeeb ur Rahman. He deposited Bhuvneshwar over midwicket for another maximum to become the leading six-hitter among Indians in the IPL.

By the time the powerplay finished, MI had crossed 50 without any loss. Although, a breakthrough arrived immediately as Rohit’s mishit off Vijay Shankar was grabbed by Virat Singh at deep midwicket.

When Suryakumar Yadav smacked Shankar over extra cover for a giant six, it seemed that the lost momentum might be made up quickly. Only for him to give the bowler a simple return catch and end what had just started to look an exciting knock. The boundaries entirely dried up, with de Kock holding his end. His patience ended soon as he wildly slogged Rahman straight to the fielder in the deep.

Pollard ends the death-over blues

Failing to find his rhythm, Ishan Kishan found an equally riddled Kieron Pollard at the other end, who bludgeoned Rahman for 105-metre six over midwicket to crawl out of his slow start. However, Kishan, who labored his way to 12 from 21, failed to break free and was sent back by Rahman in the 17th over.

Mumbai’s death over (16-20) returns had been 25/5 and 33/6 in the previous two games. That similar fate did not follow them was thanks to Pollard, who kept the hunt on even as Hardik Pandya did not aid and perished to Khaleel Ahmed. Hitting Bhuvneshwar for consecutive sixes in the final over, Pollard took MI to 150/5.

Warner, Bairstow take off 

The familiar pair of Bairstow-Warner got off to a placid start, adding only five runs from the first two overs. But that was it for Bairstow, who went berserk and bashed Trent Boult 4, 4, 6, 4 with utter disdain in an 18-run over. His carnage influenced Warner too, who drove Adam Milne through mid-off for a boundary.

Milne’s pace worked for his disadvantage as even a top-edge off Bairstow flew over the ropes, and the belligerent Englishman smothered another over long-on on the next delivery.

Perhaps, the only person who could have stopped Bairstow was he himself, and in a rather anticlimactic end to a rampaging knock, he went too far deep into his crease to be dismissed hit-wicket.

Middle-order woes continue for SRH

The scoring dropped considerably after Bairstow’s exit and Rahul Chahar got Manish Pandey caught at long-off to ensure that his struggle did not last long. Warner ended a three-over drought of boundaries by hitting a six off Chahar, although he took an exit in the next over when Hardik Pandya’s agile effort caught him well short of his crease.

Mumbai tightened the noose around a crumbly middle-order and the speculations of a collapse turned true when Chahar removed both Virat Singh and Abhishek Sharma in a space of four deliveries. Shankar upped the ante, hitting back-to-back sixes off Krunal Pandya to pick 16 off the 16th over, though momentum swung again towards Mumbai as Pandya caught Abdul Samad short of his ground and Boult trapped Rashid Khan plumb lbw. Shankar skied Bumrah to long-off before Boult cleaned up Bhuvneshwar and Khaleel Ahmed in the final over to dismiss SRH 13 runs short.

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