In a thrilling encounter of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 Match No. 8, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) secured a formidable victory over Mumbai Indians (MI) by 31 runs. The historic showdown on Wednesday, March 27, saw SRH amass a mammoth score of 277/3. In response, MI could only muster 246/5, marking their second consecutive defeat this season after a previous loss to Gujarat Titans (GT).
Mumbai Indians' captain, Hardik Pandya, significantly underwhelmed in the match against Sunrisers Hyderabad. His impact was negligible in both batting and bowling and raised quite a few eyebrows with his captaincy decisions. Hardik could only claim one wicket during his stint as a bowler and managed to score just 24 runs with the bat, leaving fans and critics alike in disbelief.
1.
In a surprising move, Hardik Pandya commenced the bowling with 17-year-old fast bowler Kwena Mafaka on his IPL debut. Mafaka, facing seasoned batsman Travis Head, conceded 28 runs in his first two overs and ended up giving away 66 runs, marking one of the most expensive bowling performances by a debutant in IPL history.
2.
SRH had already piled up over 170 runs within the first 12 overs, yet Mumbai Indians' ace bowler Jasprit Bumrah had only bowled a single over by that point. Bumrah returned to bowl his remaining overs when SRH had already overwhelmed the scoreboard with a mountain of runs.
3.
Hardik Pandya chose inexperienced bowler Shams Mulani to bowl the final over of SRH's innings while veteran spinner Piyush Chawla still had two overs left. Mulani ended up conceding 21 runs in that over.
4.
Despite an impressive showing in the match against Gujarat Titans, Dewald Brevis was benched in favor of Romario Shepherd as the impact player, who was sent in at the seventh position when the game seemed all but lost for Mumbai.
5.
Hardik Pandya's batting performance was equally lackluster. Starting strong with 11 runs off the first four balls, he slowed down to make just 13 off the next 16. Pandya's sluggish batting disrupted the momentum for MI, who eventually lost the match by 31 runs while chasing a dream target.
