A rampant Mumbai Indians rode on Rohit Sharma’s (70) second consecutive fifty to pulverise a hapless Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League match in Hyderabad on Wednesday.
Mumbai Indians’ fourth win on the trot, which took them to the third spot from the earlier sixth on the points table, came after SRH posted a below-par 143/8 and Rohit making the most of the perfect batting conditions to score 70 off 46 balls (8x4s, 3x6s).
MI scored 146/3 in 15.4 overs to win the match with 26 balls to spare, with Suryakumar Yadav hitting a 19-ball 40 not out (5x4s, 2x6s).
The fate of the contest was all but sealed when SRH crumbled to 35/5 following an embarrassing collapse. Despite Heinrich Klaasen’s 71 and Abhinav Manohar’s 43, the hosts did not have enough runs on the board to challenge MI’s batting might.
The five-time winners recorded their third consecutive win while chasing, having drubbed Chennai Super Kings by nine wickets last Sunday.
It was also their second win over SRH in the season, having beaten them by four wickets last week in Mumbai.
India’s Test and ODI captain Rohit announced his intentions when he hoisted an off-cutter from Pat Cummins over deep square leg fence for a six and followed it up with a four in the third over.
On a flat and hard deck here, Rohit was quick to read the conditions, having come on to the field as an impact sub late in the second half.
When Jaydev Unadkat took the pace off the ball in the fourth over, Rohit was quick to pounce on it, lifting it powerfully over cover for his second six.
Having gone through a phase wherein he didn’t look out of form yet big scores eluded him, Rohit blended defence and attack deftly for another high quality knock which shut the doors completely on SRH.
Earlier, Klaasen's measured 71 and Manohar's 43 rescued a listless SRH from a terrible start and guided them to 143/8.
Klaasen struck nine fours and two sixes for his 44-ball 71, putting on 99 runs for the sixth wicket with impact substitute Abhinav Manohar, who played a steady second fiddle with his 37-ball 43 (2x4s, 3x6s).
But it was a harrowing start for SRH who are placed second-last on the points table and face an uphill battle to keep themselves alive.
The lack of confidence was evident when SRH's top-order crumbled without any apparent pressure from the bowlers.
Instead of putting pressure on the MI bowlers, SRH presented a meek batting show, which was compounded by a reckless decision from Ishan Kishan (1) who walked back despite not having edged one behind the stumps.
Deepak Chahar's (2/12) ball drifted down the leg side, which the on-field umpire duly called a wide. But seeing Kishan walking back, he raised his finger.
Interestingly, neither the bowler nor MI wicketkeeper Ryan Rickelton appealed for a caught behind.
The collapse began when Travis Head (0) threw his bat at a wide delivery on the off side from Trent Boult (4/26) to give catching practice to Naman Dhir at third man.
Abhishek Sharma (8), who hit a six to begin with, gave another simple catch to Vignesh Puthur off Boult, while Nitish Kumar Reddy played one straight to Mitchell Santner at mid-on for Chahar's second wicket.
The top order implosion saw last year's finalists crawling to an embarrassing 24 for four in the powerplay.
Aniket Verma and Klaasen steadied the ship for a while but SRH's misery continued when the former was bounced out by MI skipper Hardik Pandya.
Klaasen struck two fours and a six off Puthur in the 10th over and hit three more boundaries off Pandya in the next to give SRH some momentum, but MI bowlers kept a tight control in general to not let the burly South African get away.
Klaasen did not get much assistance from the other end as Manohar, sent as an impact substitute, crawled to one off seven balls before his first big hit.
Klaasen's resistance ended in the penultimate over when Jasprit Bumrah (1/39) had him caught by Tilak Varma for his 300th T20 wicket, while Manohar fell to Boult in the last.
