Mumbai, May 21 (IANS) Cameron Green struck a brilliant unfinished century and Rohit Sharma smashed a half-century as Mumbai Indians comprehensively chased down a stiff target in their must-win encounter against Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL 2023 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Sunday.
Mumbai Indians needed to win the match to maintain their chances of reaching the Playoffs, and their progress will now depend on the result of the last preliminary league match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Gujarat Titans at Bengaluru. If RCB win the match, they will go through with a better net run rate.
Mumbai Indians, however, fulfilled their part of the bargain by scoring a comprehensive victory which took them to 16 points.
Green completed his century off the final ball of the 18th over, taking 47 balls to reach the milestone. Rohit Sharma contributed 56 off 27 deliveries as Mumbai Indians raced to 201/2 off 18 overs, chasing Sunrisers Hyderabad’s score of 200/5 made possible by half-centuries by Vivrant Sharma (69) and Mayank Agarwal (83), who shared a 140-run stand for the opening wicket.
Going for a big win to shore up their Net Run Rate (NRR) as they are locked in a three-way battle for the lone Play-offs spot with Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals and make things difficult for RCB who would be playing Gujarat Titans in the evening match, Mumbai Indians made a brisk start. They had to reach 201 within 12 overs to take their NRR past that of RCB.
After a quiet opening over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishan Kishan exploded into action by hammering K. Nitish Kumar Reddy for a six and four off successive deliveries in the second. However, Kishan (14) was out in the next over, ballooning a pull off a shortish delivery by Bhuvneshwar and Harry Brook picked up a fine low catch diving to his left at midwicket.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and Australian allrounder Cameron Green then raised 128 runs for the second wicket off 66 balls, with both players completing their half-centuries in the process.
Rohit blasted 56 off 37 deliveries, hitting eight fours and one six in the process. Starting with a four with a thick outside edge off Bhuvneshwar in the second ball of the innings, Rohit got a life in the sixth over when a back-paddling Sanvir Singh dropped a difficult chance at midwicket off Kartik Tyagi. Rohit, who struck Umran Malik for a four in the 8th over and blasted a six off a no-ball by Vivrant in the 9th, smacked a hat-trick of boundaries off Umran Malik in the 10th over.
Dropped by Sanvir again in the 12th over, the MI skipper completed his half-century in 31 balls, playing his trademark pulls and drives to put Mumbai Indians on course in their chase of 201.
Green went ballistic from the start as he struck Bhuvneshwar for a four in the third over and then got the same result against Mayank Dagar. He danced down the track and lofted Reddy for a six and then top-edged Kartik Tyagi off a no-ball. Two back-to-back boundaries off Tyagi and a couple of sixes off Dagar in the seventh over brought up the fifty of their partnership. Green continued in the same vein and brought up his fifty in 20 balls with a six off Vivran. He survived a stumping by Klassen off Reddy in the 13th over and blazed away to his century, reaching the milestone off 47 balls, hitting eight boundaries and as many sixes in a brilliant display of power-hitting that had the capacity crowd on its feet repeatedly.
Rohit Sharma was the other Mumbai Indians batter to get out, picked brilliantly mid-air by Nitish Reddy off Dagar.
However, SRH’s dream of further wickets was thwarted by Green and Suryakuamr Yadav as they shared an unfinished 55-run partnership for the third wicket to guide Mumbai Indians to a comprehensive victory. Yadav scored 25 off 16 deliveries, for once playing second fiddle to Green as the Australian batter chased his century.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 200/5 in 20 overs (Vivrant Sharma 69, Mayank Agarwal 83; Akash Madhwal 4-37) lost to Mumbai Indians 201/2 in 18 overs (Cameron Green 100 not out, Rohit Sharma 56, Suryakuamr Yadav 25 not out; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-26).
–IANS
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