MI's bowling tricks on slow pitch get them second straight win

Mumbai Indians (MI) won an important toss, got the best of the conditions, and made excellent use of them to run away to their third win of IPL 2025, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by four wickets. They sent SRH in on an unusually sluggish pitch at the Wankhede Stadium and restricted them to 162 for 5. They then hunted down their target with 11 balls to spare, with a bit of help from dew - though not enough to force a ball change.

MI's biggest match-winner on the day was Will Jacks, who had made a quiet start to the season, but showed all his value in his sixth match with his new team. His 26-ball 36 was an important innings, but he made an even bigger impact with his offspin, bossing his match-up against SRH's entirely left-handed top three and finishing with 2 for 14 in three overs.

Jacks' three overs allowed MI to delay their use of their Impact Player, even though they lost their legspinner Karn Sharma - Player of the Match in their last game against Delhi Capitals - to an injury before he could bowl a ball. Not being forced to bring on a bowler as his replacement allowed MI to sub in Rohit Sharma at the start of their chase, and he gave them impetus with an early cameo. With Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya also contributing handily, MI never allowed SRH's bowlers to get a sniff.

For all that, though, this was a match won by MI's bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah executed best, but their other fast bowlers also played their part in constricting SRH with a plan heavy on slower balls and yorkers on a surface where powering the ball down the ground seemed impossible at times.

This was why SRH only managed to post 162, despite a 59-run opening stand from Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, both of whom enjoyed major slices of luck along the way. That SRH got that far was down to a strong finish, with the 18th and 20th overs bringing 21 and 22 runs respectively as Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins hit the only five sixes of their innings.

The first over of the match was an ominous one for MI. Deepak Chahar found Abhishek's edge first ball only for the overhead chance to burst through Jacks' hands at slip. Then Head flicked uppishly only for the ball to fall short of the diving Karn at midwicket.

The latter event happened in the third over as well, this time off Abhishek's bat, and this time Karn's futile dive also gave him a split webbing. He left the field and didn't return to bowl.

Fortune smiled on SRH again in the tenth over, when Head was caught on the square-leg boundary off a no-ball from Hardik. But the bigger story was that Head was batting on 24 off 24 at that point, struggling to time the ball on a pitch where the ball simply wouldn't come on to the bat. Abhishek had looked a little more fluent, scoring 40 off 27 before being caught on the point boundary off Hardik in the eighth over.

That wicket had come right after another ominous moment for MI, when Hardik had pulled up in his follow-through with what seemed like an injury to his left shin or ankle. He even seemed to gesture to his dugout to call for a substitute, but in the end he dusted himself off and continued bowling.

SRH only scored 46 in the powerplay despite not losing a wicket, and while the slow, grippy conditions played their part, MI's bowlers also used them beautifully, with Bumrah standing out, giving away just 10 runs in his two powerplay overs.

MI brought on Jacks as soon as the powerplay ended, and he immediately began finding grip and turn. After Hardik had broken the opening stand in the eighth over, Jacks struck his first blow in the ninth, turning an offbreak sharply past the flailing bat of the charging Ishan Kishan to have him stumped.

Then, changing ends to bowl the 12th over, Jacks ended Head's miserable stay, having him caught at long-off for 28 off 29 balls.

Head's dismissal - a failure to clear the straight boundary - was a theme of SRH's innings, with all their batters struggling for power down the ground. Only four fours came from the eighth to the 15th overs, and all four were hit behind the wicket. Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy batted through most of this period, putting on 31 off 33 balls.

A three-run 17th over from Trent Boult, which included the wicket of Reddy, caught at long-on, left SRH 115 for 4 with 140 looking a fair distance away.

But they managed to collect 47 off the last three, with Klaasen, Aniket and Cummins finally ending their sixes drought. Two of the five sixes involved exquisite skill from Klaasen and Aniket over the covers, but three came off hittable full-tosses. There were seven full-tosses in all in the last three overs, suggesting that dew may have already started setting in.

One of those full-tosses, however, came from Bumrah, who bowls the most unhittable full-tosses in world cricket, and bowled Klaasen as he attempted to make room. His 19th only went for four runs, sandwiched between expensive overs from Deepak Chahar and Hardik.

Impact sub Rohit took his chances early on, enjoyed a bit of luck, including an edged six over deep third, and hit a couple of trademark pulled sixes off his hip to give MI early impetus. Rickelton struggled early on, got going with three successive fours off Eshan Malinga, and enjoyed a strange stroke of luck when he was caught in the covers off Zeeshan Ansari only for an umpire's review to confirm a no-ball - for keeper Klaasen's gloves encroaching in front of the stumps before the batter had hit the ball. But Rickelton was out soon after, miscuing a Harshal Patel slower ball to backward point.

Between them, though, the openers had shaved 57 runs off MI's target.

Then Jacks and Suryakumar combined for the decisive partnership of the match, putting on 52 for the third wicket in just 29 balls. They hit four sixes and a four in three overs from legspinners Ansari and Rahul Chahar - who came on as Impact Sub, replacing Mohammed Shami who still had an over of his quota remaining - who were still finding grip off this surface but ever so often erred in line or length.

By the time Cummins broke this stand, MI needed 42 at less than a run a ball. Hardik hurried them towards victory, hitting a six and three fours - including a glorious back-foot punch through wide long-on off Cummins - and they finally got home at the start of the 19th over, after a bizarre 18th that brought Malinga two wickets for just one run.