70 league stage matches and it’s going down to the very last match of the 2023 IPL season to decide the final qualification spot for the playoffs. And that’s happened because Mumbai Indians have done their part and beaten Sunrisers Hyderabad by 8 wickets in Sunday’s afternoon game to finish the season on 14 points.
Now, it is down to the result of the RCB vs Gujarat Titans game, being played in Bengaluru, where a win will see Faf du Plessis's team enter the playoffs and defeat would mean Mumbai go through.
Playing in their last league stage match of the season, Mumbai Indians' Cameron Green struck a brilliant unbeaten century and Rohit Sharma smashed a half-century as they comprehensively chased down Sunrisers Hyderabad's 200/5 at the Wankhede Stadium.
Green completed his century off the final ball of the 18th over, taking 47 balls to reach the milestone, Rohit Sharma contributed 56 off 27 deliveries as Mumbai Indians raced to 201/2 off 18 overs, chasing Sunrisers Hyderabad's score of 200/5 made possible by half-centuries by Vivrant Sharma (69) and Mayank Agarwal (83), who shared a 140-run stand for the opening wicket.
Rohit Put Hyderabad In to Bat
Earlier, the Mumbai Indians bowlers failed to get an early breakthrough as Mayank Agarwal and Vivrant Sharma made merry, staying together at the wicket for 13 overs and raising 140 runs for the opening partnership.
The SRH openers made a sedate start before picking up the rate of scoring towards the end of the Power-play. Vivrant Sharma struck a boundary off the third ball bowled by Jason Behrendorff in his first over and then exploded into action in the fourth over, scoring back-to-back boundaries off Chris Jordan -- the first deftly guided between third-man and backward point while the second came when he slapped a length ball through cover, charging down a bit. He hammered seasoned spinner Piyush Chawla for two fours in the sixth over.
At the other end, Mayank Agarwal hammered successive boundaries off Behrendorff in the third over, slapping a slower one over the bowler's head for the first four and then racing down a couple of steps to cover drive it past Jordan at mid-off. He struck two fours off Akash Madhwal in the fifth over and edged Kumar Karthikeya past the short third man for four in the seventh over. When Behrendorff returned for his second spell, Agarwal hammered him for a six over cover and then guided an attempted yorker past the short third man off the next delivery in the 13th over.
Vivrant completed his half-century off 36 balls, hitting seven fours and one six as SRH scored 100 off 66 balls. Agarwal reached his fifty off 32 deliveries, hitting an identical seven fours and one six.
Agarwal, who struck Madhwal for a six in the 14th over and then hammered a four and six on successive balls from Karthikeya, and Heinrich Klaasen raised 34 runs for the second wicket before the Karnataka batter edged behind an attempted pull to Ishan Kishan off Madhwal. His 83 came off 46 balls and included eight fours and four maximums.
Klassen did not last long and SRH suffered a wobble and it was only a four and a six by skipper Aiden Markram (13 off 7) in the final over that helped them reach 200, which in the end proved insufficient.
Mumbai's Chase
After a quiet opening over by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishan Kishan exploded into action by hammering K. Nitish Kumar Reddy for a six and four off successive deliveries in the second. However, Kishan (14) was out in the next over, ballooning a pull off a shortish delivery by Bhuvneshwar and Harry Brook picked up a fine low catch diving to his left at midwicket.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and Australian allrounder Cameron Green then raised 128 runs for the second wicket off 66 balls, with both players completing their half-centuries in the process.
Rohit blasted 56 off 37 deliveries, hitting eight fours and one six in the process. Starting with a four with a thick outside edge off Bhuvneshwar in the second ball of the innings, Rohit got a life in the sixth over when a back-paddling Sanvir Singh dropped a difficult chance at midwicket off Kartik Tyagi. Rohit, who struck Umran Malik for a four in the 8th over and blasted a six off a no-ball by Vivrant in the 9th, smacked a hat-trick of boundaries off Umran Malik in the 10th over.
Dropped by Sanvir again in the 12th over, the MI skipper completed his half-century in 31 balls, playing his trademark pulls and drives to put Mumbai Indians on course in their chase of 201.
Green went ballistic from the start as he struck Bhuvneshwar for a four in the third over and then got the same result against Mayank Dagar. He danced down the track and lofted Reddy for a six and then top-edged Kartik Tyagi off a no-ball. Two back-to-back boundaries off Tyagi and a couple of sixes off Dagar in the seventh over brought up the fifty of their partnership. Green continued in the same vein and brought up his fifty in 20 balls with a six off Vivran. He survived a stumping by Klassen off Reddy in the 13th over and blazed away to his century, reaching the milestone off 47 balls, hitting eight boundaries and as many sixes in a brilliant display of power-hitting that had the capacity crowd on its feet repeatedly.
Rohit Sharma was the other Mumbai Indians batter to get out, picked brilliantly mid-air by Nitish Reddy off Dagar.
However, SRH's dream of further wickets was thwarted by Green and Suryakuamr Yadav as they shared an unfinished 55-run partnership for the third wicket to guide Mumbai Indians to a comprehensive victory. Yadav scored 25 off 16 deliveries, for once playing second fiddle to Green as the Australian batter chased his century.
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