MI continue to climb IPL ladder with comfortable win over SRH

Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Wankhede on Thursday, continuing their advance up the IPL ladder with their second-straight victory.

The win was orchestrated by English all-rounder Will Jacks, who was awarded player of the match due to figures of 2/14 and a handy knock of 36 runs from 26 balls.

MI came into the match as slight favourites across IPL betting sites but struggled to make inroads initially.

While SRH were slow off the mark on a sticky pitch, they put on 59 runs for the first wicket thanks to Abhishek Sharma (40 from 28) and Travis Head (28 from 29).

The visitor’s slow run rate came back to bite them, however, as when three quick wickets fell in the middle overs, they were unable to rebuild.

Nitish Kumar Reddy (19 from 21) was forced to bat conservatively and by the time he fell in the 17th over, Hyderabad’s score stood at just 113/4.

Heinrich Klaasen (37 from 28) did add some late fireworks, as did Aniket Verma (18 from 8), but all SRH could manage was 162/5 from their 20 overs.

Odds for the hosts to win had shortened at top bookie BoomBet by the time Ryan Rickelton (31 from 23) and Rohit Sharma (26 from 16) walked out to the middle, and they only continued heading in one direction.

Rohit dominated the opening overs before falling in the fourth, but the subsequent MI batsmen carried on the momentum he began.

Jacks top scored on 36, while Suryakumar Yadav (26 from 15), Tilak Varma (21* from 17) and Hardik Pandya (21 from 9) also chipped in.

Even two burst of wickets – that had MI drop from 121/2 to 128/4 and then from 162/4 to 162/6 – could not slow the hosts down, as they cantered to a four-wicket victory in 18.1 overs.

After the match, MI captain Pandya praised his team’s effort with the ball as key to their victory.

“The way we bowled was very smart and spot on,” he said.

“We stuck to simple basic plans.

“Certain balls were not easy to hit.

“Credit to the bowlers that we made them hit some good shots. We were kind of squeezing them.

“The surface nice greenish look to it, the first couple of overs, couple of balls got stuck in. We decided to use change of pace balls.

“As soon as we figured out, we trying to mixing it up.

“We executed the yorkers very smartly well.”

The win takes Mumbai – who were pre-season favourites at BetOnline – to just two points afloat from second place on the IPL ladder.

Leading cricket bookmakers price them at $6 to win their sixth title in 2025, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals still leading the market at $5.

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