Captain David Warner led from the front with a scintillating unbeaten 90 as Sunrisers Hyderabad thrashed Mumbai Indians by seven wickets to register their first victory in the IPl-9 season, in Hyderabad, on Monday.
Chasing a target of 143, the Australian opener anchored Sunrisers’ innings with a masterclass effort, after opening partner Shikhar Dhawan (2) was out in the first over itself, as the home side romped home with 15 balls to spare at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
Warner hit seven fours and four sixes in his 59-ball unbeaten knock, carrying his bat through the innings to help the Sunrisers bounce back after losing their earlier two matches.
The swashbuckling Aussie curbed his aggressive intent initially before hitting a flurry of lusty blows towards the end.
Fittingly, he hit the winning runs, sending a Mitchell McClenaghan delivery for a six as the Sunrisers reached 145 for 3 in 17.3 overs to wild cheer from the home crowd.
It was Mumbai Indians' third loss in four matches.
Skipper Rohit Sharma blamed his batsmen for the defeat, saying they need to "step up".
He also said that there was "no need to press the panic button" with still early days in season 9.
The Sunrisers, who have been hit hard by the injury of the likes of Yuvraj Singh and Ashish Nehra, made a stuttering start in their run-chase as Dhawan continued his horrible run of form, out to the fifth ball of the innings, bowled by Tim Southee.
Warner then dropped anchor and curbed his natural aggressive instinct a bit and chose his shots to find the boundaries.
At the halfway mark, the Sunrisers were placed comfortably at 66 for 1 but immediately they lost Moises Henriques (20), who stitched 62 crucial runs for the second wicket with Warner to lay the foundation for the win.
Henriques was out to a fine delivery off Southee which swung and took the outside edge of the batsman.
Englishman Eoin Morgan (11) did not contribute much as he was out, courtesy an outstanding catch by Hardik Pandya at deep midwicket off the bowling of Southee.
The Sunrisers were 100 for 3 at that time, needing another 43 runs off 34 balls and Warner took his side home in style.
For Mumbai, Southee took three wickets for 24 runs from his four overs while all his bowling colleagues went wicketless.
Earlier, left-arm pacer Barinder Sran grabbed three wickets to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad's impressive bowling display as they restricted defending champions Mumbai Indians to 142 for six.
Put in to bat, Mumbai found themselves in a precarious position as they were reduced to 60 for 4 in the 11th over and they made a brief recovery in middle overs only to fizzle out at the death in the face of some fine bowling by home side.
Sran (3-28) led the bowling charge while Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1-17) and Mustafizur Rahman (1-32) gave able support to restrict Mumbai.
The Mumbai innings was built around Ambati Rayudu's 49-ball 54, which was studded with three fours and two sixes, and Krunal Pandya's 28-ball unbeaten 49 (3x4, 3x6).
The duo stitched 63 runs for the fifth wicket to take Mumbai to a respectable total and hit 26 runs in the 14th over bowled by Bipul Sharma.
Krunal struck three successive sixes while Rayudu got one maximum hit in that over.
It seemed that Mumbai would turn around after the tottering start and post a good total but the home side bowlers had a different idea as they bowled a tight spell in the death overs to check the visiting side.
Martin Guptill's IPL debut match lasted just four balls as he was dismissed for 2 in first over bowled by Bhuvneshwar who extracted swing from the pitch early on.
Parthiv Patel (10) was the next man out, clean bowled by Sran in the fourth over after he smacked the bowler for two boundaries in that over, to leave Mumbai at 23 for two.
Rohit Sharma (5), who pushed down the order in this match, came out at number four but disaster struck Mumbai as he was run out in the first ball of the eighth over bowled by Bipul Sharma.
Rohit failed to regain his crease after he was sent back by Ambati Rayudu as Sunrisers wicketkeeper Naman Ojha whipped off the the bails. Mumbai were 43 for then in 7.1 overs.
Mumbai reached 58 for three at the halfway mark and under pressure to find the boundaries, Jos Butler (11) unnecessarily chased a ball down the leg side only to find it kissed his gloves for Ojha to take a good catch.
