Their pride and hopes were at stake. Local boy Ambati Rayudu and West Indies opener Lendl Simmons rose to the occasion to keep the Mumbai Indians in the hunt for a place in the qualifiers.
The visitors inflicted a comprehensive seven-wicket defeat on the hosts at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on Monday. It was MI’s third win from nine matches while Sunrisers slipped to their fifth loss from nine matches.
Mumbai Indians had to do something special to continue their progress and they did it in style, thanks to an enterprising stand of 130 off 87 balls between Simmons and Rayudu. Both had made identical score of 68. While Simmons got his in 50 balls, Rayudu four balls lesser. But Simmons had four fours and four sixes. Rayudu struck seven fours and two sixes in their match-winning knocks.
Sunrisers struck early as the in-form Bhuvneshwar Kumar took his 16th wicket of the IPL-7 in the form of opener CM Gautam, caught at mid-off in the very second over.
But after that it was a Simmons-Rayudu show. The two took the match away from the home team with some courageous and attacking batting to put Mumbai on course to victory.
Simmons and Rayudu thus overshadowed Aaron Finch (68 off 62 balls; 7x4, 2x6) and David Warner (55 not out off 31 balls, 6x4, 2x6) who had earlier propelled Sunrisers to a competitive 157 for 3 in 20 overs. But in the end, the home team may have perhaps been short by at least 20 runs.
Bhuvneshwar continued to swing the ball and today he tasted success in his first over. Dale Steyn too was spot on. He was accurate and fast. He strangled the Mumbai batsmen.
Being shackled by Kumar and Steyn in the first four overs, Simmons cut loose in Irfan Pathan’s first over. He swung Pathan over mid-wicket off the second ball and then hit a four and a second six over long-off. Pathan was hammered for 16 runs. That set the tone for MI.
Rayudu got into the act. He waded into leg-spinner Amit Mishra and hit him over the sight-screen for his first six. They made merry and the two cruised to 50s to dash Sunrisers’ hopes.
By the time Kumar returned for his third spell, Sunrisers had lost their way. Kumar finally broke the pair by castling Simmons and the next over, Rayudu fell to Moises Henriques. MI completed the formalities through skipper Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard.