By B Shrikant

Mumbai, May 18 (IANS): As Tim David set off for a single on the last delivery of the 18th over to retain strike, Mumbai Indians were 175/5, chasing 194 for victory against Sunrisers Hyderabad in Match 65 of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday night.

David had just then hammered T. Natarajan for 26 runs in the 18th over on the back of four glorious sixes, three of them off successive deliveries. In that fateful last delivery of the 18th over, David went for a non-existent single, even as non-striker Ramandeep Singh was reluctant to run.

David was caught short of his crease, leaving Mumbai Indians requiring 19 runs from 12 deliveries. Still quite gettable.

But their troubles compounded when Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who sent Sanjay Yadav packing on the second ball of the 19th over, bowled a wicket-maiden, sending down yorkers and fullish-length balls. Mumbai Indians now needed 19 runs off the final six deliveries to win the match.

Fazalhaq Farooqi was asked to bowl the last over instead of Umran Malik, the most successful of SRH bowlers with 3/23 off three overs.

The move paid off as Farooqi, despite starting with a wide, bowled a yorker and a fullish one wide outside off stump to deny Ramandeep Singh any opportunities to free his arms. He took a couple and followed it up with a four.

Mumbai Indians now needed 10 runs off the last four deliveries. Ramandeep took a mighty swing at a wide yorker and Mumbai Indians now needed 10 runs off two balls. Ramandeep was foxed by another wide one followed by a dot ball.

Thus Mumbai Indians needed 10 off the last delivery, and though Ramandeeep struck the ball for a six, it was too late and too little as SRH won the match by three runs. Till that fateful 18th over, Mumbai Indians looked on their way to victory as they fought back well in the slog overs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad rode on a brilliant half-century by Rahul Tripathi (76) and his 70-plus runs partnerships with Priyam Garg (42) for the second wicket and with Nicholas Pooran (38) to post a challenging total of 193/6 in 20 overs.

Mumbai Indians were boosted by a superb start by openers Rohit Sharma (49) and Ishan Kishan (42) and Tim David's 18-ball 46 to remain on course for victory.

They scored 51/0 in the powerplay as compared to 57/1 by SRH. They added 76/4 between overs 7-15 as compared to 91/1 by SRH, In the slog overs, MI were far better, scoring 63/3 in the final five overs as compared to 45/3 by SRH. Mumbai Indians eventually ended their innings on 190/7 in 20 overs.

Considering how close the match was, the run-out of David and the wicket-maiden bowled by Bhuvneshwar Kumar were the turning points of the match.