With a spot in the knock-outs at stake, nothing other than victory would do for SunRisers Hyderabad on Tuesday and that was some way to book a berth in the playoffs!
The David Warner-led SRH were clinical in victory over the Mumbai Indians from the get go and played high quality cricket throughout.
It was their bowlers who put them in the driver's seat. Sandeep Sharma started the rut, taking out Mumbai Indians Captain Rohit Sharma in the second over, deceiving him with a slower one. Rohit tried to go big, but only holed out to Warner at mid-off.
Even as Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock went after the bowling, Sandeep struck again. He had started his second over poorly and was rightly punished by de Kock, who clubbed him for a four and consecutive sixes.
De Kock was then done in by the full toss, again the slower ball coming in to play. The ball was bowled wide and as de Kock tried to hammer it through the covers all he got was an under edge that saw the ball crash into the stumps.
Mumbai lost two wickets in the powerplay and although Suryakumar was batting in full flow, Ishan Kishan played a stop-start innings that affected MI's scoring rate.
Left-arm medium pacer Thangarasu Natarajan put a lid on the scoring giving just 7 runs off his first two overs.
Then came along left arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem who got some stick in his first over after some lusty blows off Suryakumar's bat that produced 9 runs.
Nadeem then made up for that by first taking out Suryakumar, who was out stumped for 36 off 29, and followed that up by having Krunal Pandya caught at mid-wicket for a duck.
Leggie Rashid Khan's dismissal of Saurabh Tiwary for 1 in the next over brought uncertainty to the MI dug out.
Hereafter, up until the 19th over, even though Kieron Pollard and a well-set Ishan were at the crease, the bowlers were not giving the batsmen easy deliveries.
Ishan was eventually taken out by Sandeep late in the innings, before Pollard was out for 41 off 25.
Sandeep's early inroads, coupled with Nadeem and Rashid's strikes in the middle overs, put the brakes on Mumbai.
Even though Pollard took 30 runs off the last two overs, MI's inability to find the big shots consistently in the middle overs was their undoing.
They were outdone by SRH bowlers and eventually lumbered to 149 for 8.
