Ryan Rickleton’s brilliant century ultimately failed to halt Sunrisers Hyderabad’s surge, as SRH powered their way to a 249/4 chase of 244 with eight balls remaining and six wickets in hand. The win extended Hyderabad’s unbeaten momentum to five matches and hauled them back to third place in the IPL standings. It was a high-octane run chase too—one of the league’s biggest totals in pursuit—built on blistering half-centurions from Travis Head and Heinrich Klaasen, with the middle and death overs doing the real damage.
Sunrisers chase 244 to beat Mumbai at Wankhede
In the match at Wankhede, Mumbai Indians posted 243/5 in 20 overs, with Rickleton striking 123 not out off 55 balls and Will Jacks contributing 46 off 22. For SRH, Eshan Malinga’s figures of 1-29 stood out as Mumbai’s innings ended with plenty of runs on the board. Hyderabad then reached the target of 244 in 18.4 overs, finishing on 249/4. Head made 76 off 30 and Klaasen struck 65 not out off 30, while AM Ghazanfar picked up 2-51. SRH won by six wickets.
The decisive factor in a game that featured more than 485 runs came in the form of Malinga’s spell through the heart of the chase and his control at the back end. The seamer conceded only 29 runs overall and claimed a wicket, providing the slight break in momentum when Mumbai looked most dangerous. On a flat track where batting usually flows, that brief stutter proved crucial.
There was also an immediate storyline for Mumbai—Rohit Sharma was not involved after dealing with a hamstring issue. At the toss, captain Hardik Pandya made it clear that Rohit would require a little more time, saying he would miss “a couple of more games” as he worked to get back to full readiness. The more notable surprise, though, was Pandya’s decision to bat first at Wankhede.
That call barely mattered in the opening phase. With Will Jacks promoted into the opening role for his first appearance of the season, he responded with a rapid 46 from 22 balls. He attacked Praful Hinge, Pat Cummins and Harsh Dubey with intent, and Rickleton gave Mumbai another explosive edge at the other end. After SRH’s decision to bat first, the pair combined for 78 runs during the Powerplay, including sixes off Hinge and Sakib Hussain, as MI set a tempo that looked difficult to slow down.
Still, SRH found a way back once Nitish Reddy was introduced in the eighth over—Mumbai’s sixth bowling option, and one that brought immediate movement. Reddy got the ball to drift away and struck early, having Jacks caught behind off the opening delivery of his spell. That brought down the momentum, ending the stand at 93. Just eight balls later, Malinga forced another change in the chase by testing Suryakumar Yadav’s pull, with Yadav caught at fine leg. The two wickets in quick succession gave Hyderabad a more meaningful grip on the innings.
For a period, Mumbai’s surge was still hard to contain. Naman Dhir took a little longer to settle, but Rickleton kept finding gaps and kept varying his boundary-making areas even as plans shifted to the left-hander. His output was especially heavy on the leg side, with Harsh Dubey taking the brunt of the assault—Dubey was struck for 50 runs in his three overs. In the middle overs, Malinga, Cummins and Praful Hinge tightened things further, each delivering a miserly over to prevent MI from sprinting away. A quick 15-ball cameo from Hardik Pandya added 31 runs, yet it was also a stretch where Rickleton wasn’t getting as much strike. Even so, Rickleton still finished with 123, the highest score by an MI batter in the match, and ended his innings with a boundary and a six. The late finish hurt Mumbai, as the last eight overs produced only 87 runs—an economy that eventually proved costly.
Travis Head’s innings could easily have ended early, but instead it became a statement knock. He was a touch short of his best rhythm, yet he found a way to convert chances. In the first over, an edge went just beyond Will Jacks. In the third, Naman Dhir dropped him on 2 at the boundary. Two overs later, Dhir had another chance at backward point, but Head’s edge again sailed just over the fielder. After those let-offs, Head turned the momentum with three sixes off Trent Boult in the third over, helping him build speed. By the time the Powerplay ended, he had already raced to five sixes and three boundaries. The next over brought his half-century again, this time with another maximum—although Dhir again got a hand to it while trying to force it back into play, and still the ball cleared the ropes.
SRH’s batting also revealed how effectively they exploited Mumbai’s bowling variations. Despite Mumbai having seven bowling options available, none managed to fully disrupt the flow. Even Will Jacks’ offspin was not safe—Head and Abhishek Sharma carted it for 19 in the fifth over. No one escaped, not even Jasprit Bumrah, who conceded 28 runs in two overs. The SRH openers slammed 92 in the Powerplay, the joint-highest total scored against Mumbai in that phase. Crucially, they didn’t ease off afterward; SRH raced to 126 runs in eight overs, bringing the required rate down to about 10 as Mumbai faced a 245-run chase.
Once, Mumbai looked like they might slow the chase. After being punished for 12 runs in his 12-over spell, AM Ghazanfar returned in the ninth over and struck twice in quick succession, dismissing Abhishek and Ishan Kishan off successive deliveries. Abhishek mistimed a slog to Trent Boult, while Kishan chopped one back onto the stumps. The next over brought another moment of control: Hardik induced Head to scoop a drive to extra cover, and SRH slipped from 129 for no loss to 133 for 3 in just 10 balls, with two new batters in the middle.
That balance didn’t last. Heinrich Klaasen moved quickly to punish Ghazanfar’s errors in length and line, smashing 16 runs off him earlier in the spell as Mumbai failed to regain momentum. The following over continued the pressure, with Klaasen making life difficult against Ashwani Kumar’s short and wide deliveries. Once MI found the right pattern—full lengths outside off—the required rate dipped to around nine and over. Even so, SRH still kept dealing with it. Nitish Reddy and Klaasen struggled at times to finish the boundaries off those deliveries against Boult and Pandya, but Mumbai’s plan didn’t hold steady. Bumrah and Ghazanfar, who didn’t consistently stick to the script, were punished as the required rate kept dropping. Reddy fell to a surprising quick bouncer from Boult, but Salil Arora arrived and ensured there was no late anxiety. He hit three sixes and two fours, helping SRH complete the chase without any twists in the closing overs.
With the result, SRH reclaimed third place and strengthened their push toward the playoffs, securing their sixth win of the season. Mumbai, meanwhile, slipped into ninth spot after suffering their sixth defeat in eight outings, leaving their campaign in a precarious position.
Next up, Sunrisers Hyderabad will return home to host Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday afternoon. Mumbai Indians will travel to Chennai to face Chennai Super Kings on Saturday.
