Their ability to adapt to the conditions and exploit them for their a cond victory in a row shone through as Mumbai Indians scamperes to a four-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 33 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl first, Mumbai India and restricted Sunrisers Hyderabad for 162/5, using the assistance offered by the slow pitch with occasional extra bounce and some movement. Then then weathered a few anxious moments to reach 166/6 in 18.1 overs to win their third match of the season to move to seventh position in the points table, moving ahead of the logjam on four points they were caught in before the match.
"The way we bowled was very smart and spot on. We stuck to simple basic plans. Certain balls were not easy to hit. Credit to the bowlers that we made them hit some good shots. We were kind of squeezing them. The surface has a nice greenish look to it, the first couple of overs that Deepak bowled, couple of balls got stuck in. We decided to use change-of-pace balls. As soon as we figured out, we trying to mixing it up. We executed the yorkers very smartly well,"
The Mumbai Indians captain also praised his English allrounder teammate Will Jacka who calimes 2-14 first to help restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad and then top-score with 36 as MI recovered to win the match.
He (Will Jacks can be a gun fielder. Bowled those gun overs. Today it came off for him.When we needed 42 off 42, we felt it was a tricky part, take it for a couple of overs and not get too excited. As soon as boundaries come pressure gets off, that's why we pushed the pedal at the end.
Asked to bat first, the SRH openers lived a charmed and chancy life in the middle with Abhishek Sharma getting a reprieved from Will Jacka while Travis Head's uppish flick landing just short of the fielder. This happened in the first over bowled by Deepak Chahar. Abhishek struck some food shots including a hattrick of boundaries off Chahar.
But was out of Pandya for 40 off 28 balls as he attempted one shot too many. Travis Head too left soon and SRH fell failed to recover, lost wickets at regular intervals, succumbed to the pressure created by the MI bowlers especially Will Jacka, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya.
Heinrich Klaason gave some respectibility to the score by smacking Deepak Chahar for two sixes and two fours in the penultimate over. But 162 was still quite short of the par total, though the wicket gave them some hope.
SRH captain Pat Cummins admitted that it was not an easy wicket to bat and said they fell short of an expected target.
Wasn't the easiest of wicket, 160 was a few short. It was a tricky wicket, cutters were gripping. They shut down a lot of our scoring areas. I thought we had all bases covered, 160 you feel a little bit short, I thought we gave it a good crack with the ball. We thought we needed wickets, had plenty of death bowling in Eshan, Harshal and myself. Needed just an over or two, so we gave it to the leggie [Rahul Chahar]. Got to play well away from home to make the finals, unfortunately not clicked yet.
Chasing 163, Mumbai Indians lost Rohit Sharma early to Cummins after he struck his India teammate Mohammed Shami for two sixes in one over and also struck one off Cummins before guiding a low full toss into the hands of Travis Head at covers.
Ryan Rickelton (31) and Will Jacks (36) along with Suryakumar Yadav (26), Tilak Varma (21 not out) and Hardik Pandya (21) room them to the verge of victory.
With two runs neeses off 18 balls, Pandya got out trying to seal victory with a boundary while Naman Dhir fell three balls later for zero. Varma ensures they had not more hiccups and sealed victory witha four. Cummins ended with 3-26 but his effort was not enough to take SRH to victory.
Brief Scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 162/5 in 20 overs (Abhishek Sharma 40, Heinrich Klaasen 37; Will Jacks 2-14) lost to Mumbai Indians 166/6 in 18.1 overs (Will Jacks 36, Ryan Rickelton 31; Pat Cummins 3-26) by four wickets.
