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The T20 World Cup is weeks away and Hardik Pandya is finding his way back at the right time.
The Mumbai Indians skipper put up his best show with the ball as the hosts picked up a comfortable win over Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede stadium on Monday, May 6, 2024.
Pandya and the experienced Piyush Chawla picked up three wickets each to restrict SRH while Suryakumar Yadav's unbeaten ton saw MI pick up their fourth win of the season.
The best spells of the match no. 55 of IPL 2024...
Hardik Pandya
Playing his first tournament after a long injury lay-off, Pandya took time to find his bowling rhythm. He seems to be in good form with the ball in recent games, picking up two wickets in MI's last two games.
He made a telling difference with the ball against SRH, with a splendid spell of 3/31 in four overs.
Pandya didn't get off to a good start, conceding 22 runs in his first two overs in which he was hit for four boundaries but he made a superb comeback in his second spell.
With the first ball of his third over, he grabbed the key wicket of the in-form Nitish Kumar Reddy, who miscued the pull shot and was caught at point for 20.
He made things more difficult for SRH with a double strike in his final over. Shahbaz Ahmed's attempted loft over the leg side failed to materialise as he holed out a simple catch to Suryakumar Yadav at long on in the 16th over and a few balls later he produced a beauty to clean up Marco Jansen for 17.
After an expensive start, Pandya redeemed himself well, taking 3/9 in his last two overs, which proved vital in SRH's downfall in the middle overs.
<pPiyush Chawla
The veteran leg-spinner bowled a vital spell in the middle overs. He started with the big wicket of Travis Head in his opening over as the left-hander swept it straight into the hands of the fielder at deep square leg to be dismissed after scoring 48 from 30 balls.
He also kept it tight in the first over, giving away just four singles.
The 35 year old dealt SRH the biggest blow in his second over. The visitors were looking up to Heinrich Klaasen to hit them out of trouble, but Chawla dented their hopes. The South African went for a big slog across the line but only managed to drag the ball back on to his stumps to be bowled for 2.
Chawla had excellent figures of 2/9 in two overs which left SRH reeling on 101/5 in 13 overs, losing four wickets for 34 runs in six overs.
The leggie was taken for runs in his third and fourth over, but he signed off with the wicket of Abdul Samad with the last ball of his spell, getting the right-hander leg before for three, to finish with 3/33 in four overs.
Jasprit Bumrah
Sunrisers made a brisk start before Bumrah came into the attack in the third over. As usual, the two SRH openers, Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, found it difficult to get Bumrah away as he conceded just four runs in his opening over.
Abhishek, who likes to dominate the bowlers, struggled to 16 from 11 balls before his misery was ended by Bumrah. The left-hander pushed at one away from his body to get the edge as Bumrah got some slight away movement to get and wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan completed a good diving catch to his left.
Bumrah was once again exceptional with the ball. Despite bowling two overs in the Powerplay, he had superb figures of 1/9 in his first spell.
He came back later in the innings to bowl his third over. Again, the SRH batters could not force the pace against MI's premier pacer as they got just six runs from the 14th over, including a wide.
Even when bowling the 19th over, he kept things in check giving away eight runs, as he registered tidy figures of 1/23 in four overs as MI managed to restrict SRH to 173/8.
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