Leg-spinner Rahul Chahar once again bowled Mumbai Indians to victory, defending a modest target, this time against Sunrisers Hyderabad, at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.
MI had produced a similar win against Kolkata Knight Riders in its previous game.
Chasing 151, SRH started strongly, thanks to a 22-ball 43 from opener Jonny Bairstow. The Englishman added 67 with skipper David Warner for the first wicket, setting a base for his side, before he was dismissed hit-wicket.
Chahar then triggered a middle-order collapse with a spell of three for 19 before Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult finished things off, securing a 13-run win for the defending champion.
Bairstow cut loose in the third over, picking up 18 runs off Boult with three fours and a six before hitting Adam Milne for two sixes in the very next over.
His innings, though, came to a tame end when he stepped on the stumps, trying to go deep in the crease as he attempted a lap-shot against Krunal Pandya.
At the other end, Warner was cautious during his 36 before he was run out by a Hardik Pandya direct hit.
What followed then was a familiar story of the SRH middle- and lower-order struggling to force the pace and losing wickets against tight bowling.
Earlier, valuable knocks from openers Quinton de Kock (40), Rohit Sharma (32) and some power hitting from Kieron Pollard (35 n.o.) at the end helped MI post a competitive 150 for five.
Electing to bat, the openers wasted no time in maximising the PowerPlay (53/0) on a pitch that has been known to become progressively difficult to bat on.
de Kock started with two boundaries in the first over while skipper Rohit punished the short balls, with a couple of sixes over the leg side. Vijay Shankar then struck twice in quick succession, removing Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav to put the brakes on MI's scoring.
While Rohit mistimed a length delivery straight to deep mid-wicket, Suryakumar fell to a ball that stopped on him and prompted a simple return catch. In the middle overs, led by Rashid Khan, SRH pulled things back steadily, with MI’s second 50 taking almost nine overs.
Towards the end, Pollard, who was dropped on 18 by Vijay Shankar, gave the innings some momentum, signing off with two sixes off Bhuvneshwar, which proved crucial in the end.
