- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
DEFENDING champions Mumbai Indians (MI) needed the best of the blessings of the cricket gods to qualify for the playoffs of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. It did not happen but Rohit Sharma’s side did not go without a fight and made the game a thoroughly entertaining one.
Mumbai needed to beat Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in their last league match by an unlikely margin of 171 runs to pip Kolkata Knight Riders to make the playoffs. If they had batted second, there was no chance MI could make it. Sharma did the first job well of winning the toss at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi. He elected to bat and looked relaxed. It was all up to the MI batters to unleash the force.
Sharma fell for 18 off 13 balls but when he departed, MI already had put up 80 runs in the sixth over, thanks to some unbelievable hitting by his opening partner Ishan Kishan (84 off 32). When Kishan departed by nicking one from Umran Malik to Hyderabad wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Saha, MI were 124 for 3 in the 10 over and their supporters were hopeful that a miracle was in the making. However, MI’s scoring pace got slower in the middle overs because of the fall of some wickets but Suryakumar Yadav played another thunderous innings at No.5 by belting 82 off just 40. He also took a blow in his head while batting. The double knocks saw Mumbai ending up at 235 for 9 in their 20 overs, requiring to restrict SRH to 64 or less to make the last four.
All the SRH bowlers went for runs but Abhishek Sharma was the most economical of them by picking two wickets for four runs in one over that he bowled. Wicket-wise, Jason Holder was the best as he picked four for 52 runs.
But SRH openers shattered Mumbai’s chances by putting up 64 runs for the very first wicket when Jason Roy fell for 34 (off 21). There was a little slump for SRH thereafter as they were reduced to 100 for 4 in the 10 over. But stand-in skipper Manish Pandey (69 not out off 41) and Priyam Garg (29 off 21) kept them in the hunt by adding 56 runs in six overs. But once Garg departed, SRH lost steam and eventually finished at 193 for 8 to lose by 42 runs. The result paved the way for Kolkata to make the playoffs after three years. Kishan was picked as the man of the match.
For Mumbai, Jasprit Bumrah, Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Neesham took two wickets each but their effort fell far short of Mumbai’s batters who gave the supporters a tremendous hope.
Delhi Capitals finished as the table-toppers with 20 points despite losing their final game against Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets in Dubai while Chennai Super Kings and Bangalore finished on same points (18) but Chennai were ahead because of a better net run-rate. Delhi will play Chennai in the first playoff in Dubai on October 10 while Bangalore and Kolkata will lock horns in the eliminator in Sharjah the next day.
