Sunrisers Hyderabad has only lost one game at home that too it was their previous one and they were raring to erase that memory when they took on Mumbai Indians, who are sitting at the top of the table.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to bat first, but only could manage to score 138/7 in their 20 overs. Several teams have defended such low totals sometimes even lower; Mumbai was hoping to do same. SRH lost their skipper, David Warner (6 off 6 balls) early, but they still had big names in their line-up. The 91-run partnership between Shikhar Dhawan (62 off 42 balls) and Moises Henriques (44 off 35 balls) put the home team comfortably on course for a comprehensive win, emerging victors by seven wickets with ten balls to spar.
Questions were raised when inform Kane Williamson was replaced by all-rounder Mohammed Nabi. Who had only played a single match against Kings XI Punjab, proved quite a handful for the hard hitting Mumbai batsmen. The off-spinner opened the bowling with Bhuvenshwar Kumar and baffled the visitors. He bowled 4 overs giving just 13 runs with a wicket.
The move paid off as the home team got a much required victory under their belt with a seven wicket win.
The victory helped Sunrisers to strengthen their position in the points table. At 15 points from 13 games they still have one more match to go against Gujarat Lions in Kanpur and a win will confirm their place in the playoffs. If not, they have to survive on the other results.
The results of this match meant the race for Delhi Daredevils to qualify for the playoffs is over. SRH is in fourth spot with 15 points and Delhi with 8 points from 11 games cannot finish in the top-4. Mumbai is already settled in the playoffs, while Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad and Punjab are vying for the three remaining slots.
AMandeep
