IPL 2025: SRH batters second best to MI bowlers again

Hindustan Times

23-04-2025

MI bowlers took the flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad without forgetting to carry the pace-off bowling template that saw them down the powerful batters in Orange last week. That's all it took to force SRH into submission on a dry pitch at the Uppal stadium in the crucial Powerplay.
Abhishek Sharma and Ishan Kishan fell to smartly executed slower balls. The floodgates opened when Travis Head came out swinging against Trent Boult and holed out to deep backward point. Nitish Reddy's woes continued as he found no timing and on drove Deepak Chahar straight into the hands of mid-on. None of their top four touched double figures as SRH were reduced to 24/4 after 6 overs.
Those were one-third of the runs they would get on a good day with only two fielders patrolling the boundary. The fearlessness that sent shivers down the opposition's spine all of last year has gone missing, as has common sense batting. Give SRH a pitch that isn't a belter, and the top order, hardwired to attack, is unable to adapt.
SRH have had very few good days this year, eroding all the confidence of the batters. So much so that Kishan walked off, assuming he edged one down the leg side, but replays showed the nick wasn't even detected by the Snickometer.
The home team lost another wicket in the form of Aniket Verma in the 9th over with the score only on 35. It was to another slower ball, this time from Hardik Pandya.
It is on days like these that the Impact Sub can offer a lifeline. SRH were forced to shore up their batting by bringing in Abhinav Manohar after subbing out Head. What a good impact he left!
Before leaving the stage, dismissed in the final over, Manohar 43 (37b, 2x4,3x6) played his part. He found some late boundaries at the death, but took the backseat for most of his 63-ball 99 run sixth wicket partnership with Heinrich Klassen.
The South African delivered a masterclass of boundary hitting on a slow pitch, picking up lengths early off the back foot against deliveries that were meant to make middling the ball harder. Klassen 71 (44b,9x4,2x6) began by hitting Vignesh Puthur out of the attack and kept timing the ball which held off the dry surface.
But so far behind in the game were the men in Orange in the first half of their innings, that the Klaasen-Manohar partnership could lift them only to 143. It gave them nothing more than a fighting chance.
After Boult (4-0-26-4) and Chahar (4-0-12-2) delivered the early breakthroughs, Mitchell Santner backed up for MI with a terrific spell of defensive bowling (4-0-19-0) to keep the SRH total in check.
Rohit on song
Another brisk start from Rohit Sharma meant SRH couldn't make early inroads in the Powerplay. Rohit brought out the trademark pull early against Pat Cummins, advanced down the wicket to negate Jaydev Unadkat's left-arm threat, Zeeshan Ansari's googly was dispatched in the mid-wicket stands. Every adverse match-up was dealt with effectively, as the former MI captain continued his upward run-scoring trajectory after a poor start to the season.