Tuesday saw the last league match of this year’s Indian Premier League between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians. It was a high tensed match as it was a must win game for Sunrisers Hyderabad. If they win, they’ll qualify for the playoffs while if they lose, Kolkata Knight Riders will.
Mumbai Indians were asked to bat first and after struggling for 20 overs, Mumbai Indians put up a total of 149 runs with the loss of 8 wickets. Captain Rohit Sharma was back after his injury but couldn’t do much as got out contributing just 4 runs. Kieron Pollard fought for his team as he scored 41 of 25 deliveries while Suryakumar Yadav scored 36 and Ishan Kishan contributed 33 runs. Sandeep Sharma took 3 important wickets for Sunrisers in the form of Rohit Sharma, Quinton De Kock & Ishan Kishan. Shahbaz Nadeem also bowled brilliantly and gave away just 19 runs and took 2 wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal Pandya.
It was an easy target for Hyderabad to chase down and so did they in style. They chased down the total in 17.1 overs and won the match by 10 wickets. Captain David Warner scored 85 of 58 deliveries while Wriddhiman Saha scored 58 of 45 deliveries. With this win, Sunrisers Hyderabad qualified for playoffs and with that Kolkata Knight Riders’ season comes to an end.
Shahbaz Nadeem was chosen as a man of the match. In the post match conference, Nadeem said, “I have been working on the carrom ball for a couple of years and I thought it was the right time to bowl it becausethey have a lost of left-handers in their side”.
He further added, “Contributing to the team boosts you. Everyone has been contributing and my job is to fit in. This is a very small ground but the pitches are turning slower, so as a spinner, if you pitch it in the right areas, it does work”.
The winning captain David Warner was happy with his team’s performance. In the post match conference Warner said, “They rested a few players but it hold them to 150 on this ground was great. A lot of credit goes to the bowlers, Nadeem was superb”.
David Warner further added, “I pride myself on getting my team to a great start. That is my duty, my job. Fortunately the last few games have been great and we have been able to go in a positive manner”.
Speaking about their eliminator match against Royal Challengers Bangalore, Warner said, “RCB are a great team, very well led by VIrat. They have a lot of danger in their side. We beat them in the final in 2016 and I am excited for the challenge in a do or die game”.
Rohit Sharma after the match said, “Not the day we want to remember, probably our worst performance of the season. We wanted to try a few things, it didn’t go our way.”
Rohit Sharma also cleared that he is now fit and have no problem whatsoever. “I was happy to be back, it’s been a while. I’m looking forward to play few more games here, let’s see what happens. The hamstring is fine, absolutely”.
Speaking about their next match against Delhi Capitals, Rohit said, “They are a good side, so it will be a good challenge to face them. You want to leave this performance behind as quickly as possible. We’ll get back to the drawing board and figure things out”.