Suryakumar propels Mumbai to third spot with Bangalore win

Suryakumar Yadav put on display a power-hitting masterclass to post his highest score in IPL — a 35-ball 83 — and with Nehal Wadhera blasting an unbeaten half-century, Mumbai Indians handed Royal Challengers Bangalore a six-wicket defeat in Match No 54 of India Premier League (IPL) 2023 at Wankhede Stadium, here on Tuesday.

Suryakumar started on a sedate note after Ishan Kishan had given Mumbai Indians a whirlwind start with a 21-ball 42, and raced to his half-century in 26 balls. He raised 140 runs for the third wicket partnership with Wadhera (52 not out off 34 balls) in just 66 deliveries as Mumbai raced to 200/4 in 16.3 overs, chasing Royal Challengers Bangalore’s 199/6 in 20 overs built around blazing half-centuries by Faf du Plessis (65) and Glenn Maxwell (68).

Thanks to Suryakumar Yadav’s 83 and an unbeaten 52 by Wadhera, Mumbai twice survived double-strike overs by Wanindu Hasaranga and Vijaykumar Vyshak to race to their sixth win of the season and zoomed to the third spot in the points table. Mumbai Indians were tied with four other teams at 10 points before the match but are now at 12 points from 11 matches and are placed behind Gujarat Titans (16) and Chennai Super Kings (13) and in a superb position to seal a place in the Playoffs if they win their next three matches.

Mumbai Indians started in whirlwind fashion thanks to Ishan Kishan who blasted a 21-ball 42 to give them a dream start. As his skipper Rohit Sharma, who returned to his opening slot after batting down the order against CSK, and watched from the other end, Ishan Kishan went hammer and tongs at the Royal Challengers Bangalore bowling, hitting four boundaries and four maximums during his superb knock.

He started the Mumbai Indians’ reply with a four off the first delivery when Mohammed Siraj strayed down the legside and whipped through midwicket and lofted to long-on Josh Hazlewood for fours off successive deliveries in the second over.

Siraj came under attack in his next over too as Ishan Kishan, who was on Monday included in the India Test squad for the World Test Championship (WTC) Final, hammered back-to-back sixes over the long-on and deep backward square leg boundary.

A monster hit off Hazlewood into the top tier in deep square-leg area was the pick of the shots in his brief knock and he celebrated it by smashing a four and a six off Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga. But the leg-break bowler had the last laugh as he got Ishan Kishan on the next delivery after the six by cramping the Mumbai Indians batsman for space with a quicker one as thin-edges it to Anuj Rawat.

Hasaranga struck again in the same over, sending back Rohit Sharma for seven, trapping him lbw with a superb delivery, and getting three reds from ball tracking on a fine DRS review by RCB skipper Faf du Plessis.

From 50 for no loss, Mumbai slumped to 52/2 in the fifth over after Hasaranga’s double strike and though Rohit Sharma’s side recovered from the slump thanks to a timely partnership between Suryakumar Yadav and Nehal Wadhera.

They shared a 100-run partnership in 53 deliveries as they put the Mumbai innings back on track. Wadhera, who was dropped by Hasaranga off his own bowling, pulled Vijaykumar Vyshak for a six off the second delivery he faced before French cutting and driving Harshal Patel for two fours. He slog-swept Hasaranga for his second six in the 11th over.

Suryakumar Yadav, on the other hand, had to dive to survive a run-out attempt in the sixth over before Virat Kohli came up with a poor effort, off Harshal Patel, at the deep midwicket giving him his first four. The Mumbai batter guided Vyshak to the boundary in the eighth over and then survived a DRS review for ball tracking confirming the impact is outside off. He exploded into action in the 12th over by hammering Hazlewood for back-to-back fours and then struck Harshal Patel for another four through the gap behind point.

Suryakumar treated Siraj on his return for his second spell with a four and six off successive deliveries and the slog-swept Hasaranga into the crowd at deep backward square leg and followed it up by launching the Sri Lankan spinner over deep square leg boundary for another big six.

Agencies