Mumbai Indians hit road to recovery

In fact, Mumbai had done well to keep two well set batsmen in Hyderabad’s Finch and David Warner to a run-a-ball for a good spell now as exactly 19 runs had trickled from the previous 19 balls. To put up as a worthy target, the hosts needed runs and they needed these runs fast. Only 10 balls remained for the conclusion of the innings.

An old adage in cricket talks about the benefits of keeping wickets in hand, although it is more applicable to the longer formats. Common sense will tell you that not losing too many wickets wasn’t working for Hyderabad in this T20 match. Not until this point at least. Finch and Warner had added exactly 100 runs between them (the former was batting on 68 and the latter on 32), yet SRH were struggling at a sub-6.5 run-rate. However, Warner — a T20 man who blasted his way into Test cricket — was soon about to prove that tried-and-tested Test formulae could work in T20s too.

He had batted four overs by himself so far and was perhaps seeing the ball like the proverbial melon. Now he was ready to tee-off. The next ball by Malinga, a length delivery outside the left-hander’s leg, was picked up with a quick shift of his feet and dumped into the second tier over long-on. This was the first six in the SRH innings since the eighth over and the third over all. Finch tried to make it number four off the over’s penultimate ball, but was caught in the deep. That didn’t affect Warner though, who rolled up the six count with another massive thump over the sightscreen to end the over.

Good, but not enough

Kieran Pollard, who had conceded just three runs from his only over thus far, was brought on by Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma to bowl the final over the innings. After new man Naman Ojha slapped him for a six and Warner finished with a two beautifully struck boundaries, Pollard ended with 0/21 from 2 overs and SRH had 157/3 in 20 overs. Against a side who had lost thrice as much as they had won this season and with the services of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (best bowler this season) and Dale Steyn (best bowler in the world) in their ranks, one would have assumed that the hosts had done enough.

The Hyderabad pacers started in style. Steyn conceded one run in his first over and Bhuvneshwar conceded two, but he also had a wicket. In fact, Bhuvneshwar looked like he would strike everytime he ran in to bowl his first over. Off the first ball, Mumbai opener CM Gautam seemed to have nicked the ball to Ojha, but the umpire’s finger did not rise. It did not need to off the second ball as Gautam scooped the ball straight to captain Shikhar Dhawan at covers. Then Lendl Simmons was struck twice on the pads to finish the over, neither of which were given.

By the time Bhuvi’s clever variations and Steyn’s pace came to their first halt, Mumbai were 16/1 in four overs. Nothing but divine intervention could have stopped the defending champions from a loss and the subsequent exit from the tournament. That intervention came in the form of Hyderabad’s weakest link, Irfan Pathan.

Pathan’s lack of pace or variations cost him 16 from his first over. One-match old Simmons used those long-hops to find form, smacking two sixes and a four. And by the time Pathan came back for his second over, the innings’ 12th, he played Ambati Rayudu back into form with 13 runs. Until that point, Rayudu was ambling along at a run-a-ball. By the end of the Pathan gift of an over, his strike rate was 141 — thanks largely to that four past midwicket and the six over long off.

Both scored 68 and took the first step of Mumbai improbable task of making it to the play-offs.