Klaasen helps SRH muster 143 after another collapse

Last week, Mumbai Indians (MI) had straightjacketed Sunrisers Hyderabad's (SRH) batters on an atypically slow surface at the Wankhede Stadium. On Wednesday, they did the same in the reverse fixture at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, sending SRH in and keeping them to 143 for 8. Getting to that total was a bit of an achievement for SRH after they had slumped to 35 for 5, with Heinrich Klaasen hauling them to something like respectability with a superb 71 off 44 balls.

The most telling performances of the innings came from MI's new-ball bowlers, however, with Trent Boult and Deepak Chahar picking up two early wickets each as SRH slumped to the lowest powerplay score of the season, 24 for 4. SRH were in danger of collapsing to a double-digit total when they lost their fifth wicket in their ninth over, but Klaasen and Impact Player Abhinav Manohar ensured that didn't happen, putting on 99 for the sixth wicket in 63 balls.

Klaasen played a number of sensational shots - none better than a reverse-scooped six off Jasprit Bumrah in the 19th over - but thanks to the circumstances SRH were in, his innings was necessarily one of restraint, as a control percentage of 86 suggested. The risks he took were measured ones, off marginal errors in line and length from MI's bowlers. That he still finished with a 160-plus strike rate was a testament to his quality, with Manohar's 43 off 37 balls and the scores of SRH's other batters putting his innings in context.

Interviewed during the innings break, Manohar suggested the pitch had been on the slow side, with the ball holding in the surface particularly early on. Despite that, he felt SRH's score was not nearly enough.

The early exchanges set the tone, with both Chahar and Boult swinging the new ball while also benefitting from the grippiness of the surface. Conditions still weren't as tricky as SRH's top-order slump made them look, though; both Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma were caught while going hard at the ball, slicing shots they were early on, while Nitish Kumar Reddy chipped a drive to mid-on.

The biggest moment of SRH's powerplay collapse, however, was the wicket of Ishan Kishan, who was out to a leg-side strangle for the second time this season. He began walking even though no MI player made a genuine appeal, and Ultra Edge proceeded to rub more salt in SRH's wounds, showing no spike as ball passed bat.

There was one more unusual dismissal later in SRH's innings, during a double-wicket final over from Boult, who finished with 4 for 26. He sneaked a yorker past Manohar and hit the stumps, but the batter, sitting deep in his crease, had already disturbed his wicket while trying to bring his bat down to keep the ball out.