After winning last year’s IPL, the Mumbai Indians are in a rather gargantuan spot of bother. This time, they went down to the Hyderabad Sunrisers to mark 5 losses from 5 to start their IPL 7 campaign.
Bhuvneshwar Jumar and David Warner led the way for Hyderabad to overcome Mumbai despite a sensational blitz of 78 runs from 48 balls coming from the bat of West Indian Kieron Pollard.
Batting first, the Sunrisers managed 172 courtesy to a stupendous 65 from David Warner and a decent score of 46 coming from the bat of Lokesh Rahul. In the middle of all this, Pragyan Ojha was giving a whacking, as his match figures read 0-43 off 3. A devastating performance by David Warner it was.
Hyderabad managed to easily bring down Mumbai as the Indians’ batting continued to crumble. Ben Dunk managed 20 at the top, followed by 35 from Ambati Rayudu at number 4 and a wondrous 78 from big man Kieron Pollard. Other than this, Mumbai’s batting was, again, shambolic and no one else managed double figures.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar claimed impressive figures of 2-17 from 4 for Hyderabad, consequently taking out the man of the match award and leaving Mumbai’s IPL title defence chances in tatters.
Mumbai just don’t have any confidence going through their camp and they can only manage short bursts of brilliance in their games, and that comes from one person.
Cricket is a team game, not an individual competition of who can hit the most sixes. You need to collaborate with your mates to bring down the opposition.
I think Mumbai just need to take a deep breath, fire up, and try and possess as much confidence as possible. They have got the team! With the likes of Pollard, Anderson, Hussey, Malinga, Ojha, Rohit Sharma, Ben Dunk and Harbhajan Singh, they could easily be the best team in the comp if they went in with confidence.
Anyway, a match is a match and Hyderabad were the better team, so there is no point arguing.
Dale Steyn is fired up after dismissing Mumbai Indian Corey Anderson. Image source: BCCI
