Ryan Rickelton cashed in on Quinton de Kock’s absence due to injury to emerge as Mumbai Indians’ fastest centurion in the IPL on Wednesday. Yet, Mumbai still fell short as Sunrisers Hyderabad thumped them by six wickets in the high-scoring clash at the Wankhede.
Thanks to Rickelton (123 not out), who reached his ton off 44 balls, and his opening stand of 93 with Will Jacks (46 off 22 balls), Mumbai posted a big total of 243/5 after opting to bat first. But Travis Head (76 off 30 balls) finally converted his start into a big one and stitched a 129-run opening stand inside nine overs with Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24 balls) that laid a superb platform for the Sunrisers’ win.
Mumbai tried to sneak back into the contest when their young Afghan spinner AM Ghazanfar dismissed both Abhishek and Ishan Kishan in quick succession, before captain Hardik Pandya accounted for Head. But a rock-solid Heinrich Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) and his consistency in churning out stand-and-deliver strokes and flat-batted swats shut the door on Mumbai who, following this defeat, now find themselves in a must-win scenario in their coming games.
Even young Salil Arora (30 not out off 10 balls) had some fun out in the middle as the Sunrisers chased down the daunting target with eight balls to spare.
Despite the Sunrisers’ shotmaking prowess, Mumbai twice had the opportunity to dismiss Head. In the third over off Trent Boult’s bowling, an inner edge off Head’s bat was taken neatly by keeper Rickelton, but neither he nor the bowler appealed.
Thereafter, Naman Dhir, at backward point, couldn’t hold on to a mishit off Jasprit Bumrah’s bowling, and that also gave Head a boundary.
Earlier, Rickelton’s innings included 10 boundaries and eight sixes, and he got decent support from Naman Dhir (22) and captain Hardik (31) as well in consecutive 50-plus partnerships. He finished the innings on an ideal note, hitting a six and a four off the last two balls.
Bumrah futile
One of the reasons why Mumbai have lost six matches out of eight this season is Bumrah’s struggle. The best bowler across all formats did his job commendably for Team India in their successful T20 World Cup defence this year, but in Mumbai colours, he has been anything but deadly.
On Wednesday, Head and Abhishek took 28 off his first two overs and then Klaasen also took him on in his next spell. If that wasn’t enough, even Salil, who hasn’t had much game time at this level, bashed the Indian pace spearhead for a huge six over long-off.
Bumrah finished at 0/54 off his four overs.
Economical Eshan
In extremely batting-friendly conditions, where even Bumrah got smashed, Eshan Malinga continued to deliver for the Sunrisers. Though he took just one wicket, conceding 29 off his four overs again showed the kind of control with which he has been operating.
Centurion Rickelton too couldn’t dictate terms to the Sri Lankan quick, whose economical bowling also factored in the Sunrisers winning a fifth game on the trot.