IPL 2018, MI vs SRH: 5 talking points

Mumbai Indians' poor run at the IPL persisted as they were beaten by Sunrisers Hyderabad by 33 runs at Mumbai. In a low-scoring encounter, SRH were dismissed for 118, thanks to some fine bowling by the MI bowlers.

In reply however, the Sunrisers bowlers were just fantastic as they kept on dismissing the MI batsmen in quick succession. Barring Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal Pandya, none of the Mumbai batsmen clicked.

The magnificence of Rashid Khan and Siddarth Kaul saw Mumbai Indians being bowled out for 87, which is their joint lowest IPL score, having scored the same total against Kings XI Punjab at Mohali 7 years back. Sunrisers Hyderabad on the other hand defended the second lowest total in IPL history.

The win took Sunrisers Hyderabad to 3rd position while Mumbai Indians remain at 7th position, somehow managing to cling on to their positive net run rate.

Here are 5 talking points of the match.

---

#5 When will Rohit Sharma show his consistency in the tournament?

The MI skipper has quite frankly been one of the disappointments of the tournament. Barring his 94 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the 30-year old has played 5 sloppy innings. Tonight, Rohit came in to bat when Mumbai Indians were in a totally pressure-less situation. Yes, they had lost two wickets but the target required was not as challenging.

The right-hander scored just 2 runs before edging a Shakib al Hasan delivery to Shikhar Dhawan in an attempt to drive it through the covers. Rohit now has 140 runs from 6 innings in the tournament so far and on removing the 94, you get 46 runs from 5 innings at an average of 9.20.

So the question is, when will Rohit Sharma show his consistency at the tournament? His team would be hoping that they get their skipper back in form as MI are just three defeats away from elimination.

#4 The Mumbai Indians batting was just pathetic tonight

Suryakumar Yadav could not stay in the crease long enough to take his team through

The word that can best describe Mumbai Indians' batting tonight is pathetic. After restricting SRH to a total of 118, everyone thought that the match was in Mumbai's favour, keeping in mind their batting, which has some really good performers. Even though MI had been losing most of their matches, their batting had been pretty good.

However, the batsmen totally messed up the chase tonight. Evin Lewis fell for 5 before Ishan Kishan and skipper Rohit Sharma followed suit after scoring 0 and 2, respectively.

Suryakumar Yadav and Krunal Pandya added 40 runs for the fourth wicket to keep Mumbai in a decent position. However, after the dismissal of Krunal for 24, all hell broke loose for the defending champs.

Suryakumar Yadav departed soon after scoring 34. Kieron Pollard scored just 9 while Hardik Pandya played an innings similar to that of Chris Gayle in the 2012 World T20 final, scoring 3 from 19 deliveries.

In the end, MI were bundled out for 87, their joint lowest IPL score. The MI batting will have to improve significantly now that they are fairly close to elimination.

#3 MI's bowlers put up a good show

Markande bowled a fine spell today

The Mumbai bowling was terrific today as they managed to limit SRH to 118 despite Kane Williamson giving them a swift start. Jasprit Bumrah was economical as usual, conceding only 25 runs from his four overs and picking up the wicket of Rashid Khan.

Mitchell McClenaghan was the most expensive of the MI bowlers, conceding 22 runs from his three overs. However, he took the wickets of Shikhar Dhawan and Wriddhiman Saha to give MI a couple of early breakthroughs.

Hardik Pandya and Mayank Markande were also impressive, bowling economical spells of 2/20 and 2/15 from their three overs, respectively. Hardik got the priceless wicket of Williamson before getting rid of Manish Pandey. Markande dismissed Mohammad Nabi and Basil Thampi.

Mustafizur Rahman was the most economical of the MI bowlers as he took 1/18 from 3.4 overs. He dismissed Yusuf Pathan, which ended SRH's innings during the penultimate over.

#2 Kane Williamson's composed captaincy

Williamson's captaincy was excellent tonight

When you have only 118 to defend against a strong batting lineup at a fairly good batting surface, then the first thing that you got to do is to keep the nerves intact.

Kane Williamson did exactly that today. The New Zealander for once did not show any signs of anxiety and his body language never reflected the fact that he was leading a defense of 118.

Williamson's field settings were good as well and the way he organized his bowlers was simply phenomenal.

Williamson's captaincy was one of the primary reasons why Sunrisers were able to come out on top today and put an end to their two-match losing streak.

#1 The SRH bowling is probably the strongest in the tournament

Kaul was impressive with the ball tonight

Sunrisers Hyderabad were without their talismanic bowler Bhuvaneshwar Kumar who was ruled out of the game owing to a niggle on his back. However, despite Bhuvi's absence, the SRH bowlers did a fantastic job in defending the second lowest total in IPL history.

Sandeep Sharma was simply outstanding, conceding just 9 runs from his three overs and getting the early wicket of Evin Lewis. Mohammad Nabi had a decent debut as he dismissed Ishan Kishan. Nabi conceded 23 runs from his three overs.

Shakib al Hasan got the key wicket of Rohit Sharma and gave away just 16 runs in his three overs. Siddarth Kaul was the pick of the SRH bowlers as he did most of the damage towards the end of the innings, picking up three wickets for 23 runs in his four overs. Kaul dismissed Mitchell McClenaghan, Mayank Markande and Hardik Pandya.

Despite Kaul's spell, Rashid Khan was adjudged the Man of the Match because not only was he exceptionally economical with his spell of 2/11 from four overs but both of his scalps were game-changing wickets. The Afghan dismissed Krunal Pandya, which broke MI's momentum. He then dismissed Kieron Pollard for 9.

Basil Thampi was also impressive with the ball as he conceded just 4 runs from his 1.4 overs and got the key wicket of Suryakumar Yadav before ending the match by dismissing Mustafizur Rahman.

This spectacular performance is sufficient to prove that Sunrisers Hyderabad have the strongest and most reliable bowling lineup in the tournament at present. If the SRH bowlers continue to perform like this, they could prove to be a nightmare to any batting lineup in the tournament.