IPL 2018, SRH vs MI: 5 Talking Points

Defending champions Mumbai Indians got off to a losing start to this year’s IPL. After doing everything right for the most part of the game, Dwayne Bravo brought out his best game to snatch victory from them.

They would be coming into this game looking to set their mistakes right, especially with their bowling.

On the other hand, SRH put all doubts of them managing without David Warner to rest by annihilating RR by 9 wickets in the opening game of their season. A complete team performance allowed them to go into their game against Mumbai with full confidence.

So in this clash between the defending champions and hosts SRH in what was a thrilling nail-biter where Kane Williamson's side managed to win the game, let us look at the talking points from this game:

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#5 Rashid Khan’s outstanding spell of bowling stuns MI

Rashid Khan was in full flow in Hyderabad tonight. Grabbing outstanding control of the game situation, he squeezed MI’s innings. He never allowed the batsmen to get away throughout his spell of four overs.

Conceding just thirteen runs in his full quota of overs where he took one wicket, he showcased his full potential. His ability to turn the ball at a quicker pace troubles most batsmen makes him such an invaluable asset for Kane Williamson to have.

18 dot balls in his spell just sums up how good his performance was especially coming against an opponent as strong as the Mumbai Indians. Deservingly he got the Man of the Match award.

#4 Kane Williamson’s attacking style of captaincy

It was indeed a shock for SRH to lose David Warner before the start of the IPL 2018 as his attacking batting and captaincy was critical in their team’s success in the past few years.

With Kane Williamson taking over the captaincy, not much seems to have changed. The transition has been very smooth. He seems to know what strategy to adopt and is making sure he executes that in the middle.

With five bowlers in good knick, he is allowing them to deliver on their strengths. By setting attacking fields or rotating the bowlers perfectly, everything seems to showcase Kane Williamson’s attacking style of captaincy.

A classic example of Kane Williamson’s attacking style of captaincy was when he decided to go to the slips in the 14th over of the innings just when Kieron Pollard came in to bat, sending out a message to the big hitter.

#3 A complete effort by the SRH bowlers

The biggest strength for SRH is their all-round bowling line up. They have the pace and bounce of Billy Stanlake who gets the early breakthroughs, followed by the class of Bhuvneshwar Kumar who has equally fantastic in the beginning and end of an innings.

In his absence against MI, they drafted in Sandeep Sharma who was a perfect replacement. His ability to constantly hit the right areas and get the ball to swing both ways proved to be useful. With figures of 4-0-25-2, he ensured SRH didn’t miss the services of Bhuvi which is indeed a good place to be in for the franchise.

They also have Shakib Al Hasan whose guile and control is so useful to curb the scoring in the middle of the innings. He was effective in the middle-overs along with the simply outstanding Rashid Khan who had jaw-dropping figures of 4-0-13-1.

To complete the team performance was the superb spell of bowling by Siddarth Kaul. He was impressive in the first game against RR and continued his good work against the powerful MI. His knuckleball, variations in pace, and an effective bouncer made batting against him.

#2 Mayank Markande’s game-changing spell

With not enough to defend, the youngster Mayank Markande was brought in only the 7th over today. He came into this game having bamboozled the CSK batsmen to get three wickets.

His confidence was evident and it was desperately needed for MI that he comes in and takes wickets. And that’s what he did as he got four wickets in a quality spell of leg spin bowling.

His composure and control is very pleasing to see, especially for someone who is just starting off in his IPL journey. In this game, he had to do something special to bring MI into the game just when it looked like SRH would cruise to a win.

With figures of 4-0-23-4, he got MI into the game with 10 dot balls which is really impressive in the high-pressure environment of the IPL.

#1 Deepak Hooda manages to sneak SRH home

It looked like an easy chase for SRH where Shikhar Dhawan looked imperious and solid at the top of the order on his way to receiving the orange cap. But once the youngster Mayank Markande and Mustafizur Rahman came into bowl, things started to change.

Suddenly, the game tilted towards the MI team where there was a flurry of wickets managed to make this game much closer than it should have been. Some shabby batting by SRH coupled by good pressure bowling by MI made this a last ball finish.

The batsman who held his composure amidst the mid-innings collapse of SRH was Deepak Hooda. He hit some crucial boundaries and his partnership with Yusuf Pathan was instrumental in SRH’s win.

His constant talk and encouragement to Billy Stanlake in the last over under such pressure was very useful too as that played an important part in his team getting over the line.