Shikhar Dhawan smashed his second half century of the season as Sunrisers Hyderabad scored an easy seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in a lop—sided Pepsi Indian Premier League match here on Wednesday.
Dhawan struck nine fours and a six in his 55-ball unbeaten 73 as the home side chased down the small target of 130 with two overs to spare at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium at Uppal here.
The India opener, who had an impressive Test debut against Australia in March, shared 74 runs from 9.2 overs with Hanuma Vihari (25 off 23 balls) for the third wicket as the Sunrisers reached 130 for three in 18 overs. Captain Kumar Sangakkara contributed run-a-ball 21.
Dhawan had scored an unbeaten 63 in his first match of the IPL season for a lost cause against Chennai Super Kings in Sunrisers’ away match on April 25.
Despite today’s win, their sixth in 10 matches, the Sunrisers remained at fifth place with 12 points. Mumbai, whose three-game winning streak was snapped today, also remained at fourth place with 12 points from 10 matches.
Chasing the modest target of 130, the Sunrisers lost opener Akshath Reddy (7) in the third over with just 16 on the board.
Reddy was done in by a Mitchell Johnson slower ball as he attempted to slice it over the covers but ended up ballooning in the air for Dwayne Smith to take an easy catch at covers.
Despite the early jolt, the home side had nothing much to worry about as the asking rate was small and captain Sangakkara and Dhawan found the boundaries.
Sangakkara hit the first four of his innings off his Sri Lankan compatriot Lasith Malinga in the fifth over and then finished off-spinner Harbhajan Singh with two consecutive boundaries in the sixth over.
Dhawan was also settling down well with a four off Pragyan Ojha and a six off Harbhajan after hitting two boundaries off Dhawal Kulkarni early on.
Mumbai got off to a steady start with openers Sachin Tendulkar and Dwayne Smith reaching 31 at the end of four overs.
Smith opened the scoring with a four off the first ball of the innings from spinner Sharma. Tendulkar showed a touch of class hitting Steyn for two consecutive boundaries.
But twin strikes in one over from Ishant jolted the Mumbai camp, as he first dismissed Tendulkar (14) and followed it up with the wicket of in-form Dinesh Karthik for nought.
The pacer went through the gap between the bat and pad of Tendulkar while Karthik was caught at point trying to play an uppish drive.
Skipper Rohit Sharma got off the mark hitting back to back boundaries. However, Hyderabad kept a check on the run flow and never allowed the Mumbai batters to flourish after electing to bat. At the half way mark, Mumbai were 60 for two.
Hyderabad’s highest wicket taker in this IPL, Mishra removed both Rohit (22) and Smith (38) in the same over, after Ishant dropped a sitter from Smith off his own bowling.
Smith hit three fours and two sixes in a 40-ball knock while Rohit hit a run-a—ball 22 that included two boundaries.