Mumbai IndiansBefore this game, Suryakumar Yadav had made two ducks and two half-centuries in his four innings this season. On Thursday, he walked in at No. 3 after Ishan Kishan fell to Rabada in the third over, and got off the mark with consecutive fours off the same bowler. It wasn’t a duck, so he inevitably got to the 50 mark.
Suryakumar then used his wrists to put away Harshal Patel for another boundary in the fifth, and followed it up with a cut over the off side off Sam Curran in the sixth. Along with Rohit Sharma, he helped Mumbai to 54 for 1 in the powerplay.
Together, they would put on 81 in 57 balls, with Rohit contributing only 26 to the stand. Suryakumar dominated spinners Harpreet and Livingstone after the powerplay, but Rohit could not find the same fluency having been starved of strike for most of the stand. He fell in the 12th over for 35 when he tried to hit Curran over the covers but found the point fielder instead.
By the time Rohit was gone, Suryakumar had already reached his fifty in 34 balls. His innings was unusually sluggish by his standards, but the two-paced surface and the change-up deliveries bowled by Harshal and Arshdeep Singh forced false strokes too.
It needed Tilak Varma’s take-down of Arshdeep in the 15th over for Suryakumar to also break free in his familiar, trademark fashion, and he did that by bashing Rabada for four, six and six in the 16th after successfully reviewing an lbw decision earlier in the over.
That 18-run Rabada over took Mumbai to 148 for 2 in 16 overs, and with big hitters to come, a score of over 200 seemed to be on. But Curran removed Suryakumar for a 53-ball 78 – only the second time he had faced 50-plus balls in an IPL innings – and Mumbai could not get a lot out of Hardik or Tim David. Harshal bowled a seven-run 20th over, which included three wickets, to keep Mumbai down to under 200.
After the innings finished on 192 for 7, the highest first-innings IPL total in Mullanpur, Suryakumar told the broadcasters he felt the score was “way above par,” and his prophecy came true, but not without Mumbai surviving a massive scare.
Sreshth Shah is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @sreshthx