IPL 2014 – Review of match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians

SRH Vs MI - IPl 2014

SRH Vs MI - IPl 2014

It is said that all is well that ends well. Sunrisers Hyderabad has not won too many of its games in the UAE leg of the 2014 IPL but it would be happy with how its match against Mumbai Indians at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on the last day of April went. The game against Mumbai would have been one the team would have been looking forward to given the fact that Mumbai Indians are yet to find their feet in the present tournament.

Team composition: Sunrisers left out Ishant Sharma and brought in Irfan Pathan. Indians benched Michael Hussey who is yet to perform in the tournament and gave Ben Dunk his first cap.

Batting: Mumbai won the toss and opted to put Hyderabad into bat. Batting first, Hyderabad reached a total of 172 for 5. David Warner, coming in an unusual position of number 4, was the highest scorer with 65 from 46 balls. He was ably assisted by Lokesh Rahul who made 46 from 40 balls and thus justified the faith that has been shown in him till now by the team management.

Chasing the commendable total MI reached 157 for the loss of 7 wickets. Kieron Pollard (78 from 48 balls) found his touch after long and Ambati Rayudu assisted him well with 35 from 27 balls.

Bowling: For Mumbai, Zaheer Khan was the best bowler on show with 2 for 26 in 4 overs. Anderson bowled one over and picked up a couple of wickets as well but went for 18 runs. Malinga (1 for 28) and Harbhajan Singh (none for 16) were economical but the failure of Pragyan Ojha and Pollard to check the runs was a major problem for Mumbai.

For SRH, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the star performer with 2 for 17 and Dale Steyn (2 for 17) had a magnificent game as well. Irfan bowled a couple of overs at the death and picked up 2 for 10. However, the remaining bowlers – Karn Sharma, Amit Mishra and Darren Sammy – all went for lots of runs and this could have been problematic for the team in the game.

Where do the teams go from here?

Sunrisers Hyderabad has found a decent combination and could stick to it for the time being. However, they would still do well to give a game to the talented Parvez Rasool. They would also be happy with the win as it will give them some momentum going into the matches to be staged in India.

Mumbai Indians have not won any game at the UAE and the way they are going, it seems, victory might elude them for some time to come. They have signed Lendl Simmons and should use him, perhaps instead of Corey Anderson, who has not delivered as per expectations till now. They should also think of playing another seamer and making the bowling a bit more potent because their present combination is just not working.

They still have around 9 matches to go and if they can win those games they surely will be in a good position to contest for the playoffs. However, they need to give themselves the chance for that to happen and one way for that to happen would be to take a fresh look at their team combination and sign new players if needed.