Mumbai Indians bowler Hardik Pandya with teammates celebrates the wicket of Sunrisers Hydrabad batsman Shahbaz Ahmed during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hydrabad, at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Monday, May 6, 2024. (PTI Photo)
Hardik Pandya’s return to Mumbai Indians ended on a very sour note after the 5-time champions were the first team to be eliminated from the Play-off race after Sunrisers’ Hyderabad’s demolition job against the Lucknow Super Giants on Wednesday.
Due to SRH’s 10-wicket win over LSG, Mumbai, who are 9th in the table, having played 12 matches and losing 8 while winning 4, had their slim hope of a next round spot extinguished.
Mumbai Indians have two more matches in hand which is against the Kolkata Knight Riders and the aforementioned LSG and even if they win these two, they will get 12. Meanwhile, Gujarat Titans who are 10th in the table still have 3 matches in hand, with wins in all three will catapult them to 14.
The franchise has been in the eye of the storm since Pandya was handed the captaincy over Rohit Sharma before the IPL.
The Indian Express had reported last year following Pandya’s trade from Gujarat Titans to Mumbai Indians that Rohit Sharma was informed by the franchise at the start of the ODI World Cup about Hardik Pandya returning to the MI fold for the upcoming season, this time as captain.
In Wednesday’s match, blazing fifties by Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma powered Sunrisers Hyderabad to a 10-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants.
Head (89 not out, 30b) and Abhishek (75 not out, 28b) pummelled LSG bowlers for their stand for the opening wicket, and raced past the target of 166 in just 9.4 overs.
Earlier, Ayush Badoni’s unbeaten fifty carried LSG to 165 for four on a slow pitch. For the Super Giants, Badoni (55 not out) and Pooran (48 not out) played handy knocks.
Pooran and Badoni added 99 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket for SRH. For SRH, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the most successful bowler (2/12).
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First uploaded on: 08-05-2024 at 23:19 IST
