Explosive Suryakumar lifts Mumbai to third in IPL
Suryakumar Yadav hammered 83 off 35 balls as Mumbai Indians thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets on Tuesday to jump from eighth to third in the IPL table.
Chasing 200 to win, Suryakumar put on a blistering stand of 140 with Nehal Wadhera, who made an unbeaten 52, as Mumbai romped home with 21 balls to spare at Wankhede Stadium.
Mumbai’s sixth win in 11 matches revived their faltering campaign as the five-time champions target a top-four finish to qualify for a play-off berth.
Suryakumar’s blitz laced with six sixes was his IPL best and made Bangalore’s 199-6 look a small total after skipper Faf du Plessis (65) and Glenn Maxwell (68) lit up the first innings.
“He is one of the best isn’t he?” Du Plessis, who leads the tournament batting chart with 576 runs, said of Suryakumar.
“When he gets going he’s really difficult to bowl to. So many options you can’t shut him down. One of the greats of the game at the moment.”
Suryakumar, who had a bad start to the season before hitting form, said: “Much needed from team’s point of view. I am very happy to win a home game like this.”
Opener Ishan Kishan hit a quick-fire 42 but Mumbai slipped to 52-2 when skipper Rohit Sharma fell for seven to extend his batting slump.
However, Suryakumar and the left-handed Wadhera soon revived the chase and took the attack to the opposition.
Once settled, Suryakumar burst into life to reach his 50 in 26 balls and kept up the charge with a string of sixes and fours.
Suryakumar fell with his team needing eight more to win and Tim David got out for a duck, but Wadhera hit the winning six to bring up his fifty.
Earlier the in-form Du Plessis survived a dropped catch on nought before he hit back and registered his sixth half-century of the season.
England’s Chris Jordan had a bruising introduction with his first two overs leaking 31 runs, hours after Mumbai announced his inclusion in place of the injured Jofra Archer, who flew back home to “focus on his rehabilitation”.
Maxwell greeted Jordan with two sixes in his opening over but the pace bowler pulled things back in his final two and picked up the wicket of Dinesh Karthik (30).
Australia’s left-arm quick Jason Behrendorff struck early with two wickets including that of Virat Kohli for one, as he returned figures of 3-36.
At 16-2, Du Plessis and Maxwell combined to punish the Mumbai attack, hitting seven sixes between them in their fourth century partnership of the season.
Bangalore’s third defeat in four saw them slip to seventh in the standings.