Head, Klaasen power SRH to fifth straight win

With eight balls remaining and six wickets in hand, Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated the target of 244 to extend their winning streak to five games and reclaim third place in the points table. Ryan Rickleton's century was in vain. The fourth highest run-chase in IPL was powered by blazing half-centuries from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen. In a contest where more than 485 runs were scored with two half-centurions and a centurion, it was Eshan Malinga's spell through the middle and the death overs that proved to be the difference on the flat track of Wankhede. The pacer provided the brief stutter that proved to be the difference, allowing only 29 runs while also taking one wicket. Hardik Pandya, the Mumbai Indians captain, stated, "Rohit's gonna take a couple of more games." The Mumbai Indians opener, who was recovering from a hamstring injury, was unable to play in the match. He has tried, but he is not exactly where he would like to be." The more surprising part at the toss was Pandya's decision to bat first at the Wankhede If the Powerplay performance was anything to go by, not really. Will Jacks, playing his first game of the season, was asked to start the batting, and he responded with a blistering 22-ball 46, taking out Pat Cummins, Harsh Dubey, and Praful Hinge. Ryan Rickleton was equally destructive from the other end, smashing sixes off hinge and Sakib Hussain as the duo mustered 78 runs in the Powerplay after MI elected to bat. In the eighth over, SRH's sixth bowling option, Nitish Reddy, was used. The seamer got the ball to move away slightly and had Jacks caught behind off the first ball of his spell, and the partnership ended on 93. Eshan Malinga caught Suryakumar Yadav at fine leg eight balls later, putting his pull to the test. Two wickets in quick succession pulled a bit of momentum back. Actually, no. While Naman Dhir took time to get going, Rickleton was quick to find gaps on the field. Even as different strategies were employed against the southpaw, he managed to explore different parts of the ground to find his boundary zones. He was particularly productive on the legside. Harsh Dubey, especially, bore the brunt of his attack, getting hammered for 50 runs from his three overs. Through the latter parts of the middle overs, Malinga, Cummins and Praful Hinge delivered a miserly over each to keep a check on the surge. Hardik Pandya's 15-ball cameo, earned MI 31 runs, but it was a period where Rickleton didn't get much strike. Even though he scored 123 runs, the most by a MI batter, and ended the innings with a boundary and a six, the eight overs that only yielded 87 runs ended up being costly. Before this match, Travis Head lacked the fluency to perform at his best. It could have ended several times today. In the first over, when an edge went just past Will Jack. When Naman Dhir dropped him on 2 at the boundary in the third over, Two overs later, he found Naman Dhir again, this time at backward point, with his edge flying just over the fielder. However, he capitalized on every opportunity, beginning with three sixes off Trent Boult in the third over to propel his innings. By the time the Powerplay was done, he had smoked five sixes and three boundaries. He added six more runs to his half-century in the subsequent over. This time, Naman Dhir got a hand on the ball and tried to parry it back inside the ropes, but he couldn't stop a six despite his great effort. With seven bowling options, the Mumbai Indians had a lot of variety, but none of them worked well. Not even Will Jacks' offspin, which was carted away for 19 in the fifth over by Head and Abhishek Sharma. No one was spared the wrath of this attack, not even Jasprit Bumrah who was pummelled for 28 runs in two overs. The SRH openers blazed away to 92 runs in the Powerplay - the joint-highest scored against MI. But they continued the attack even after that, racing away to 126 runs in 8 overs, bringing down the required rate to around 10 in a 245-run chase. For a brief while they did. AM Ghazanfar returned to the attack in the ninth over, dismissing Abhishek and Ishan Kishan off consecutive deliveries after being demolished for 12 runs in his 12 overs. Kishan returned a hit to the stumps after Abhishek mistimed a slog at Trent Boult. In the next over, Hardik got Head to scoop a drive to extra cover as SRH slipped from 129 for no loss to 133 for 3 in a matter of 10 deliveries, with two new batters in the middle. Not too much time. To prevent MI from regaining the momentum, Heinrich Klaasen smashed the spinner for 16 runs in 11 overs, quickly retaliating against Ghazanfar's lines and lengths errors. In the next over, he was quick to put away the short and wide deliveries from Ashwani Kumar. By the time, MI found the perfect fix - wide full lengths outside off - the required rate had dropped to around nine and over. Nitish Reddy and Klaasen struggled to stop Trent Boult and Pandya's deliveries, but Bumrah and Ghazanfar were punished for breaking the plan, and the required rate continued to drop. Salil Arora arrived to ensure that Reddy was not put under any pressure to absorb the information before Reddy succumbed to Boult's surprise quick bouncer. He scored three sixes and two fours to assist SRH in crossing the finish line without any unexpected turns. While SRH have regained their third spot on the table and strengthened their bid for a place in the playoffs with their sixth win of the season, MI languish in the ninth spot with their sixth loss in eight games, putting their campaign in a precarious position. While Sunrisers Hyderabad will head back home to host Kolkata Knight Riders in Sunday's afternoon clash, Mumbai Indians will fly to Chennai to face CSK on Saturday.