Abu Dhabi, Oct 8 (UNI) Defending champions Mumbai Indians gave it their all in a last-gasp effort to qualify for the Playoffs as they imposed season-best total of 235/9 against Sunrisers Hyderabad in match 55 of IPL 2021 here on Friday .
With a required win of 170-run or more on the day in order to pip fourth-placed Kolkata Knight Riders on the points table, Ishan Kishan (84 runs off 32 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (82 off 40) lit up Sheikh Zayed Stadium with 24 boundaries and seven sixes.
SRH bowlers Jason Holder (4/52), Rashid Khan and Abhishek Sharma (2 wickets each) enjoyed successes on the night but none could stop the runflow with the two Indian batsmen priming for the big ocassion.
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma also won a decisive toss on the day as losing it would have meant their Playoff hopes would have ended immediately if they bowled first.
Expectedly batting first, Mumbai meant business from the word go to as opener Kishan slammed 34 runs in the first three overs.
With Sharma a silent partner at the other end, the young southpaw was just getting started as he shot SRH strike bowler Holder left, right and centre to reach his half-century in mere 16 deliveries. The over yielded 22 runs as MI put 63 runs on the board by the end of the fourth over.
Some respite for SRH came in the sixth over as Rashid dismissed Sharma at 18 (13) but the floodgates of runs were wide open as the scoreboard read 83 runs by the end of the powerplay.
MI then reached 100 in just 7.1 overs as Kishan continued fireworks; accumulating 12 boundaries and four sixes in the innings.
Promoted at no. 3, Hardik Pandya (10 off 8), on th other end, couldn't contribute much to the total on the day and fell to Holder in the ninth over.
Kishan too followed soon as rookie pacer Umran Malik had him caught behind at 84. SRH, however, could already feel they had a mountain to climb as MI scoreboard read 124/3 in the 10th over.
SRH did make some ground by bowling three tight over including the wickets of dangerman Kieron Pollard (13 off 12) and James Neesham (0 off 1) off consecutive deliveries by part-time bowler Abhishek Sharma (2/40) in the 13th over.
The Sunrisers comeback, however, was short-lived as Suryakumar brought a new lease of life to MI batting with 13 runs in the 14th over that included two fours and a six.
Yadav was just getting warmed up as he smashed 26 runs in the next two overs to take MI to 190 by the end of 16th over.
Khan, meanwhile, dismissed Krunal Pandya (9 off 7) but this had no bearing on Yadav, who shot SRH bowlers at will.
Siddharth (0/56) faced the wrath of the batter as Yadav shot him for three consecutive fours to take MI past 200 while reaching his 50 in just 24 balls.
Wickets, meanwhile, kept on tumbling at the other end with Holder dismissing Coulter Nile for just 3. Yadav smashed another string of three boundaries in the 19th over but fell right after to set himself up for a shot at century as he reached 82.
However, Holder kept things tight in the last over by bowling four dot balls including the wickets of Yadav (82 off 40) and Piyush Chawla (0 off 2) as MI ended innings at 235/9.
UNI AK GNK