Sunrisers Hyderabad’s skipper, David Warner led from the front with a scintillating unbeaten 90 as Hyderabad thrashed Mumbai Indians by seven wickets to notch their first win of the IPl-9 season at their home ground on Monday.
Chasing a target of 143, Warner anchored the Sunrisers innings with a masterclass effort after his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (2) was out in the first over as the home side romped home with 15 balls to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Warner hit seven fours and four sixes in his 59-ball unbeaten knock as he carried his bat through the innings to help the Sunrisers bounce back after losing their earlier two matches. The swashbuckling Australian curbed his aggressive intent initially before hitting a flurry of lusty blows towards the end.
Fittingly, Warner hit the winning runs as he sent a Mitchell McClenaghan delivery for a six as the Sunrisers reached 145 for 3 in 17.3 overs to the wild cheer of the home crowd.
For Mumbai, it was their third loss in four matches.
Earlier, left-arm pacer Barinder Sran grabbed three wickets to lead Sunrisers’ impressive bowling display as they restricted defending champions to 142 for 6.
Put into bat, Mumbai found themselves in a spot of bother as they were reduced to 60 for 4 in the 11th over and they made a brief recovery in middle overs only to fizzle out at the death on the face of some fine bowling by home side.
Sran (3/28) led the bowling charge while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/17 in 4 overs) and Mustafizur Rahman (1/32) gave able support to restrict Mumbai to a small total.
The Mumbai innings was built around Ambati Rayudu’s 49-ball 54, which was studded with three fours and two sixes, and Krunal Pandya’s 28-ball unbeaten 49 (3x4, 3x6).
The duo stitched 63 runs for the fifth wicket to take Mumbai to a respectable total.
It seemed that Mumbai would turn around after the tottering start and post a good total but the home side bowlers had a different idea as they bowled a tight spell in the death to restrict the visiting side to 142 for 6.
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