Rahul Tripathi batted like a man on a mission before Umran Malik sizzled with his pace as Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) kept their slim IPL playoff hopes alive with a three-run win over Mumbai Indians (MI) on Tuesday.
Tripathi scored 76 from 44 balls to guide Sunrisers Hyderabad to a challenging 193 for six. He was ably complemented by Priyam Garg (42) and Nicholas Pooran (38).
Malik (3/23 in three overs) then produced a sensational performance, while the seasoned Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/26 off 4) bowled a wicket maiden in the crucial 19th over to stop MI at 190 for seven despite the best efforts by Rohit Sharma (48), Ishan Kishan (43) and Tim David (46).
Meanwhile, MI skipper rued team's loss despite David's fightback as he said that till about the second last over Mumbai were very much in the game.
"Till about the second last over I thought we had it. Unfortunate runout there of Tim David. We thought we were very much in the game till that runout. You would back yourself to get even 19 off the final over. Credit to Sunrisers, they held their nerve pretty well at the back end. We wanted to try a few things keeping one eye on the future. We wanted certain guys to bowl under pressure in certain situations of the game but I thought they batted pretty well to get 193. The way we pulled things back at the end was very good. We weren't consistent up front with the ball. We came pretty close with the bat but couldn't finish off. Feels good (to get his highest score on the score). For us it is simple (for the last game). Just want to tick off the boxes and finish off on a high note. We will try everything we can from our side. If there is an opportunity to try out new guys we will definitely look to do that as well," Rohit said in the post match presentation.
The victory keeps SRH in the playoffs race on paper as they move up to 12 points. They need to win their last game and hope for other results to go their way.
