IPL 2025: MI rise to No. 3 with fourth straight win

A clinical Mumbai Indians (MI) destroyed a demoralised Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by seven wickets at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Wednesday.

Peaking at the right time, MI recorded their fifth victory to move up to third spot in the table, while SRH slumped to their sixth defeat to virtually end all hopes of a revival this season.

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In pursuit of a modest victory target of 144, MI suffered an early setback when SRH’s left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat sent back opener Ryan Rickelton in the second over. Coming on again as an Impact Player, Rohit Sharma (70 off 46 balls) oozed class. This is Rohit’s second consecutive fifty in IPL for the first time since 2016. His first scoring shot was his trademark pull for a six off Pat Cummins. He then hoisted Cummins over long-on for his second six. The India skipper and opener, who returned to form in the last match, did not disappoint the huge crowd with his exemplary strokes as he guided the visitors to an easy win.

Earlier, Heinrich Klaasen was the saviour of the SRH innings. The South African big-hitter slammed a 44-ball 71 (9×4, 2×6) to help the hosts reach 143-8. Left-arm pacer Trent Boult (4-26) and Deepak Chahar (2-12) came up with a wonderful exhibition of seam bowling to trouble the SRH batters.

After being put into bat, SRH skipper Pat Cummins would have hoped that his batters would come good on a ground they have excelled at previously. Instead, the season’s horror show for SRH continued. They had a nightmare of a start and were tottering at 24 for four after six overs. It was their second-worst start across all editions of the IPL, having previously posted 14 for three vs Rajasthan Royals at Pune in 2022. Fortunately for the hosts, Klaasen brought them closer to the 150-mark.

Brief scores
SRH 143-8 in 20 overs (H Klaasen 71, A Manohar 43; T Boult 4-26, D Chahar 2-12) lost to MI 146-3 in 15.4 overs (R Sharma 70, S Yadav 40*) by seven wickets