It was the first century of the season for Suryakumar and the first since December 2023 as he had missed the start of the IPL 2024 because of an injury and surgery for a sports hernia.
Chasing a small total on a pitch that helped the bowlers a bit, Mumbai Indians were in trouble at 31/3 after they had restricted SRH to 173/8 with Pandya claiming 3-31 and Chawla taking 3-33. But just when it appeared that the Mumbai Indians innings would go the way it did in the previous match when they lost to Kolkata Knight Riders chasing a small target, Suryakumar Yadav came into his own, displayed his trademark 360-degree shot-making to guide Mumbai Indians to victory.
SKY, who had struck 56 against KKR on Friday, did not leave things unfinished as he played a brilliant innings, hitting shots all over the ground, and completing his century with a six as Mumbai reached 174/3 in 17.2 overs.
Suryakumar's unbeaten 102 was studded with 12 boundaries and six maximums as he finished with a strike rate of 200.00 that left the Sunrisers players shell-shocked and the capacity crowd mesmerised.
With this victory, Mumbai Indians moved to eight points from 12 matches and picked them up from the bottom to ninth position. SRH remain fourth with 12 points from 11 matches, the same as Chennai Super Kings and Lucknow Super Giants.
Mumbai Indians got off to a poor start as they lost Ishan Kishan (9), Rohit Sharma (4) and Haman Dhir (0) in quick succession as the hosts slumped to 31/3 in the fifth over.
However, Suryakumar Yadav came to Mumbai Indians' rescue once again, hitting a timely half-century. The Mumbai batter stayed put at the wicket, and unleashed some brilliant shots, playing his usual 360-degree cricket.
Though he appeared to be limping a bit and grimacing after crossing his half-century, Suryakumar changed gears once again, playing some unbelievable shots and raising a century partnership for the fourth wicket with Tilak Varma that pulled Mumbai Indians to safety.
After playing the first couple of overs cautiously, SKY drove Bhuvi through mid-off for his first boundary and a few deliveries later stayed deep in the crease and clipped Cummins for a six, over deep third-mam.
He waded into Marco Jansen in the seventh over, hitting him for two fours and two sixes, whipping, thumping and ramping him to the boundary with relish.
He completed his half-century off 30 balls, hitting five boundaries and three maximums in the process. Suya kept up the scoring rate with back-to-back boundaries off Jansen in the 13th over and with a six off Bhuvi and successive fours off Shahbaz Ahmed in the 15th over and a four off Natarajan took him into the 90s.
Tilak Varma proved an ideal partner to Suryakumar as he kept the other end intact, giving him company, encouraging his partner and hitting a few good shots as he remained unbeaten on 37 off 32 balls, studded with six boundaries.
With 24 needed from 24 balls, Pat Cummins brought himself, hoping for a wicket and hamper Mumbai's progress but SKY launched into him, hitting the Australia captain for two boundaries and a six, three pulled boundaries that left the capacity crowd mesmerised. Suryakumar Yadav moved into the 90s and then completed his century with a six, sealing Mumbai Indians' fourth victory in IPL 2024.
Earlier, asked to bat first after Mumbai Indians won the toss, Sunrisers Hyderabad got off to a good start as Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma raised 56 runs for the opening wicket partnership.
On a wicket that was providing even bounce despite the presence of some grass on the surface, the experienced Jasprit Bumrah, as has he done earlier too, provided the breakthrough, coming into the attack as the first-change bowler, sending back Abhishek Sharma for 11.
Mayank Agarwal, brought in to bolster the batting, lasted just six balls. Debutant medium pacer Anshul Kamboj, who opened the bowling with Nuwan Thushara but was taken to 13 runs in his first over and 19 in his second, took Agarwal as his first wicket in IPL when he cleaned him up with a delivery that moved in a bit to beat the leg-side heave that the batter attempted.
Travis Head, who was going strong at the other end but was dropped by Nuwan Thushara at deep third-man off Kamboj. The Australian opener had earlier struck three fours off the 23-year-old Kamboj from Haryana, the first off a free hit, which was also a no-ball. He had started with a four off Thushara in the first over. Piyush Chawla had his measure in the 11th over when Head attempted a slog-sweep off a fullish one and hit it straight to Tilak Varma at backward square leg.
The Sunrisers Hyderabad innings came apart after that as Nitish Kumar /reddy (20), Heinrich Klaasen (2), Shahbaz Ahmed (10), Marco Jansen (17) and Abdul Samad (3) fell in quick succession as they slipped to 136/8 from 90/3 at one juncture.
Pandya opened his account for the day y sending back the dangerous Nitish Reddy, after the batter from Andhra Pradesh had hammered two fours off his bowling in the ninth over. Pandya had his man in his next over when Reddy played a pull off a short one outside off but was beaten by extra pace and skied it to Kamboj grabbed it between point and cover.
he claimed two wickets off the 16th over, sending back Shahbaz Ahmed and Jansen to further hamper SRH's progress.
Chawla got the crucial wickets of Travis Head and Henriech Klassen, cleaning him up with a fastish one that the wicketkeeper batter played onto his stumps. He also trapped Samad lbw to complete a three-fer.
Skipper Pat Cummins hammered a 17-ball 35, hitting two fours and two sixes to give the score some respectability. But in the end that was not enough as Mumbai had SKY rising to the occasion for them.
Brief scores:
Sunrisers Hyderabad 173/8 in 20 overs (Travis Head 48, Pat Cummins 35 not out; Hardik Pandya 3-31, Piyush Chawla 3-33) lost to Mumbai Indians 174/3 in 17.2 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 102 not out, Tilak Varma 37 not out; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 1-22) by seven wickets.
(IANS)
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