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Suryakumar Yadav proved why he is rated as the best batter in T20 cricket with a brilliant fighting unbeaten century that helped Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by seven wickets with 16 balls remaining in Match 55 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Wankhede Stadium on Monday.
It is the first century for Suryakumar of the season and the first since December 2023 as he had missed the start of the IPL 2024 because of an injury and surgery for a sports hernia.
Tilak Varma & Suryakumar forged a 143-run stand off 79 balls.
Image: BCCI
Suryakumar had struck a half-century in that match but could not guide his team to victory. On Monday, SKY did not leave things undone as he played a brilliant innings, hitting shots all over the ground, and completing his century with a six as Mumbai reached 174/3 in 17.2 overs.
Suryakumar scored 102 not out off 51 balls, hitting 12 boundaries and six maximums, operating at a strike rate of 200.00 that left the Sunrisers players shell-shocked and the capacity crowd mesmerised.
On Monday, Suryakumar also became the second MI batter after Rohit Sharma to record 25 scores of 50-plus for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
Image: BCCI
Mumbai Indians got off to a poor start as they lost Ishan Kishan (9), Rohit Sharma (4) and Haman Dhir (0) in quick succession as the hosts slumped to 31/3 in the fifth over.
Kishan started with a boundary off the first ball of the innings, clipping in through square leg as Bhuvneshwar Kumar drifted onto the pads. When he carved a widish delivery by Marco Jansen to the boundary despite slight movement, it looked like Kishan would trouble SRH a lot on Monday, But Jansen had his revenge when he made one move a bit to induce a leading edge from Kishan for Mayank Agarwal to pouch a simple catch.
Pat Cummins brought himself into attack inside the Power-play and the SRH skipper was rewarded Rohit Sharma skied a leading edge for Klaasen to run behind to take a difficult catch. Naman Dhir tried to hit his way out of trouble off Bhuvneshwar but perished for a zero.
However, Suryakumar Yadav came to Mumbai Indians' rescue hitting a timely half-century. But unlike in the previous match, when he struck a fifty but could not guide his team to victory, on Monday, the Mumbai batter stayed put at the wicket, unleashed some brilliant shots, playing his usual 360-degree cricket to help his team to a memorable victory.
Though he appeared to be facing a bit of physical discomfort, Suryakumar Yadav, the best T20 batter in the World as per the ICC rankings, played some unbelievable shots and raised a century partnership for the fourth wicket partnership with Tilak Varma that pulled Mumbai Indians to safety.
After playing the first couple of overs cautiously, SKY drove Bhuvi through mid-off for his first boundary and a few deliveries later stayed deep in the crease and clipped Cummins for a six over deep third.
He waded into Marco Jansen in the seventh over, hitting him for two fours and two sixes, whipping, thumping and ramping him to the boundary with relish.
He completed his half-century off 30 balls, hitting five boundaries and three maximums in the process. Suya kept up the scoring rate with back-to-back boundaries off Jansen in the 13th over and with a six off Bhuvi and successive fours off Shahbaz Ahmed in the 15th over and a four off Natarajan took him into the 90s.
With 24 needed from 24 balls, Pat Cummins brought himself, hoping for a wicket and hamper Mumbai's progress but SKY launched into him, hitting the Australia captain for two boundaries and a six, three pulled boundaries that left the capacity crowd mesmerised. Suryakumar Yadav moved into the 90s and then completed his century with a six, sealing Mumbai Indians' fourth victory in IPL 2024.
In the first innings, MI skipper Hardik Pandya finally found his bowling mojo as he claimed a three-fer along with veteran spinner Piyush Chawla as Mumbai Indians restricted SRH to 173/8 .
Chawla claimed the wickets of the dangerous Travis Head, who top scored for SRH with 48 off 30 balls (7x4, 1x6) and Heinrich Klassen (4) to apply brakes on the visitors' progress in the middle overs.
Veteran spinner Piyush Chawla claimed a three-fer.
Image: BCCI
Sunrisers Hyderabad made a brisk start and raced to fifty in five overs with Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma starting in typical fashion. However, Mumbai Indians pulled them back a bit, claiming five wickets within the next fifty runs as SRH slumped to 96/5.
He struck in the last over of the Power-play when his length delivery held its line and took the outside edge as Abhishek played at it with little footwork, Ishan Kishan made a superb diving attempt to take a nice catch. Abhishek made 11 off 16 balls, a six off Anshul Kamboj being the lone boundary he hit on Monday.
Mayank Agarwal, brought in to bolster the batting, lasted just six balls. Debutant medium pacer Anshul Kamboj, who opened the bowling with Nuwan Thushara but was taken to 13 runs in his first over and 19 in his second, took Agarwal as his first wicket in IPL when he cleaned him up with a delivery that moved in a bit to beat the leg-side heave that the batter attempted.
Travis Head, who was going strong at the other end, was dropped by Nuwan Thushara at deep third-man off Kamboj when he was on 45. The Australian opener had earlier struck three fours off the 23-year-old Kamboj from Haryana, the first off a free hit, which was also a no-ball. He had started with a four off Thushara in the first over.
Piyush Chawla had his measure in the 11th over when Head attempted a slog-sweep off a fullish one and hit it straight to Tilak Varma at backward square leg.
He claimed two wickets off the 16th over, sending back Shahbaz Ahmed and Jansen to further hamper SRH's progress.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scalped three wickets, too.
Image: BCCI
Pat Cummins and Impact Player Sanvir Singh helped them negotiate the last couple of overs, taking them past the 150-run mark, Cummins struck two fours and as many sixes as he remained unbeaten on 35 to give SRH a below-par score.
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