Malinga picks four as Mumbai Indians beat Sunrisers Hyderabad

Mumbai, April 25: Mumbai Indians bowled their heart out to successfully defend a modest total against Sunrisers Hyderabad and earn their second win in the Indian Premier League here on Saturday.

After putting up 157/8 on the board, the hosts picked up wickets at regular intervals to restrict Sunrisers to 137/8 in 20 overs at the Wankhede stadium.

The 20-run victory, however, was not enough to pull out Mumbai Indians from the eighth and last position in the cash-rich league, while Sunrisers are three rungs higher.

Lasith Malinga was the pick of the Mumbai bowlers, finishing with impressive figures of 4-1-23-4. He took three wickets without conceding a single run in his fil over.

The Sri Lankan was well supported by Mitchell McCleghan (4-0-20-3). Spinner Jagadeesha Suchith too was economical.

The visitors got off to a flying start, with opener Shikhar Dhawan striking the ball to all parts of the park, as Hyderabad raced to 39 in four overs.

The other opener, skipper David Warner (9), was the first to go, with Lasith Malinga rattling the stumps and then giving the Australian a perfect Indian-style send-off with a maste.

Soon after, Dhawan (42 off 29 balls) also departed with Malinga taking a catch of McCleghan.

Incoming batsman man Ojha (9) also did not last long, as his attempted big hit went only as far as the outstretched hands of Kieron Pollard.

Lokesh Rahul showed promise but after making 25 off 27 balls, offered a catch to mid-on.

Ravi Bopara (23 off 28) seemed set to finish off the game, but was dismissed by McCleghan.

Earlier, the visitors pegged Mumbai to a modest total.

Opting to bat first, home side Mumbai Indians started off carefully, with openers Lendl Simmons and Parthiv Patel scoring at a run-rate of just over six an over.

But Sunrisers speedster Dale Steyn hit the brakes on the scoring by getting rid of Parthiv (17) in the sixth over. Hyderabad were 42/1.

Unmukt Chand also did not last long as he was caught at mid wicket by Dhawan off Praveen Kumar.

Simmons, however, was looking fluent with the bat as he struck the first six of the innings in the 10th over.

As the West Indian seemed to have the perfect launch pad for a huge total, bowling changes by Warner worked wonders. Steyn devoured Simmons (51; 42b, 4x4, 1x6).

Wickets then fell at regular intervals.

Mumbai suffered a huge blow when skipper Rohit Sharma (24 off 14 balls) was caught by Bhuvneshwar Kumar at long on while trying to hit a six off the bowling of Karn Sharma.

The fil over of the Mumbai innings saw Bhuvneshwar picking up two wickets in consecutive deliveries, most importantly that of Kieron Pollard (33 off 24 balls) who was looking dangerous at the death overs.

Bhuvneshwar ended with figures of 4-0-26-3. Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn got two apiece. (IANS)