Rahul Tripathi turned on the style at the Wankhede for Sunrisers Hyderabad against the Mumbai Indians, scoring 76 off 44 deliveries to put his side in a good position. Nicholas Pooran and Priyam Garg made handy contributions as SRH got 193/6.
For MI, Ramandeep Singh picked 3 wickets to restrict SRH, who made a blistering start.
Batting first, the Sunrisers did not open with Kane Williamson, as the in-form Abhishek Sharma and Priyam Garg took charge. However, the experiment didn’t work out as Daniel Sams sent Sharma back to the hut for 9.
From then on in, Garg and Rahul Tripathi started to build, and continued to score at good pace during the powerplay. Garg was quite attacking at his end and Tripathi matched him shot for shot for the rest of the powerplay, finishing at 57/1.
They didn’t slow down after that either as Sanjay Yadav and Mayank Markande bore the brunt of the attack. Garg was approaching his half-century around the midway stage, before Ramandeep Singh got his wicket for 42 off 26 deliveries. Garg and Tripathi had put on a 78-run stand.
Kane Williamson did not open the innings against MI
Image: BCCI
In walked Nicholas Pooran, and took a few deliveries to get his eye in, while Tripathi kept the momentum going. He too was approaching a fifty. Against Riley Meredith, the left-handed Pooran cut loose with back-to-back sixes, and then attacked Markande in the next over too. By the end of the 14th over, Tripathi too had brought up a 32-ball half-century as SRH looked set to go big in the final phase of the innings.
After that, Tripathi went through the gears in Sams’ final over, smashing a six and two fours as SRH hurtled along. Trying to keep the run-rate going, Pooran went to clear long leg off Meredith before a brilliant catch by Markande ended a 22-ball 38 run cameo. Tripathi and Pooran had added 76 off 42 deliveries. There was still no sign of Williamson as Aiden Markram walked in.
Shortly after, Tripathi’s fine innings came to an end. He didn’t connect well and was caught in the deep by Tilak Varma off Ramandeep for 76 off 44 balls, having hit 9 fours and 3 sixes. Before the over was out, Ramandeep had Markram walking back for 2. SRH had lost three wickets for as many runs and the focus was on Williamson and Washington Sundar.
Sundar threw his bat at everything and so did Williamson, finding the boundary once in the final 2 overs, and pushing the total to 193/6. Bumrah finished the innings with the scalp of Sundar while Williamson was unbeaten on 8.
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