Malinga ensures victory for Mumbaikers

Cricket365
April 29, 2015

The Mumbai Indians ran out 20-run victors over the Sunrisers Hyderabad on Saturday, with Lasith Malinga and Mitchell McClenaghan proving too much for the men in orange as they failed to chase the 158 required.

Mumbai batted well early on before Dale Steyn and Bhuvneshwar Kumar stiffled the scoring, and a target under 160 was not considered overly daunting. But Malinga's four wickets and McClenaghan's three put paid to the chase.

Mumbai won the toss and opted to bat, looking to keep their revival going after their horrendous start to the tournament. Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons put on 42 for the first wicket inside six overs.

Patel was first to fall, to Steyn (who was picked alongside Trent Boult for the first time this year) for 17, and then Unmukt Chand was out for five. Simmons and Rohit Sharma did well though, taking the score to 100 inside 13 overs.

But then Simmons was out for 51, bowled by Steyn, and then Rohit departed soon afterwards for 24 to Karn Sharma. Kieron Pollard's 33 was the only other score in double figures as Bhuvi broke the rest of the order. But it was a valuable knock.

SRH actually did rather well to start, with Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner taking on Mumbai's Harbhajan Singh. They scored 45 in five overs, though Warner only made nine of those before becoming Malinga's first victim.

Dhawan then fell for 42 soon afterwards, caught by Malinga off McClenaghan, and from there it was all downhill. Lokesh Rahul and Ravi Bopara were the only other batsmen able to reach 20, and while Bopara was there, hope was still available.

But he fell to McClenaghan for 23, and from there Malinga wrapped up the tail. He took three quick wickets as SRH were reduced to 137 for eight. They needed 30 runs in the final over, which Vinay Kumar easily prevented.