It was another clinical performance by Mumbai Indians (MI) in Sharjah as they went atop the points table by beating SunRisers Hyderabad by 34 runs. Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma hailed the all-round effort as Quinton de Kock scored his first 50 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020, and Kieron Pollard and the Pandya brothers – Hardik and Krunal – went big at the death. With the ball, James Pattinson, Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult all showed their experience as they choked the SRH chase in the last five overs.

“The wicket looked good but it was slightly on the slower side so getting past 200 was a great effort,” Rohit said after the match.

“We didn’t have any total in mind. We back our bowlers to do the job. And that’s what they did. I definitely missed out, but again you try your best whenever you have the opportunity. Great effort from the boys to put those runs on the board.”

Pollard finished unbeaten on 25 off 13 with three sixes while Hardik got 28 off 19 with two fours and as many sixes. Krunal, coming in to bat in the last over of the innings, smashed 20 off five to pop the Mumbai score over 200.

“It is great to have three power hitters. Today Krunal also showed his value,” Rohit said. Krunal contributed with the ball as well, finishing 1/35 from four overs.

SRH looked in contention for the chase as long as their captain David Warner was in the middle. But when he was dismissed by 60 by James Pattinson, SRH went downhill.

Praising his bowlers who kept their nerves in the death, Rohit said: “You come with bowling plans. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but you have to bowl the best delivery at the time.

“I don’t try to impose my plans on them. I want them to give me their plan, and then I set the field. It is always nice to have bowlers who do that.”

Warner, too, praised Mumbai’s pacers – Pattinson, Boult and Bumrah – who shared six wickets between them. “Looking at the stats, their two experienced bowlers bowled well in the middle overs,” Warner said.

“That wicket during the day is a little bit slower. It was holding up a fraction. Obviously, 209 on the board, we tried to go 10 an over, but we couldn’t get a partnership strung together long enough,” he added.

Although SRH tried to pull things back at the death, Pollard and Hardik added 41 off 4.2 overs to hand Mumbai the advantage in the last five overs.

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Krunal then took 20 off the last four balls to make it 61 off the last five overs on a featherbed in Sharjah. Warner rued full tosses and how a bowling attack sans Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was out injured, couldn’t take the heat.

“Two new guys (Siddarth Kaul and Sandeep Sharma) coming in today with Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar) injured as well. A lot of things we can work on in training. I counted probably seven or eight full tosses towards the back end. From the execution point of view, we didn’t nail that,” said Warner.