MI vs SRH | All-round Will Jacks subdues sluggish Sunrisers to record big Mumbai win

Opting to bowl first, Hardik Pandya’s Mumbai Indians nearly got off to the perfect start when Deepak Chahar swung one across Abhishek Sharma first ball to get a thick outside edge, only for Will Jacks to let it spill at first slip. Karn Sharma made it a double whammy three balls later when he failed to go for a ball that dropped just short of him, and Abhishek celebrated the reprieve with three boundaries in the penultimate over of the powerplay to take the score to 46/0 at the end of six despite some excellent new-ball bowling. The odds seemed to tilt further in the visitor’s favour when Pandya went down clutching his ankle in the eighth over, only to have the destructive opener hole out the very next ball and end the 59-run opening stand. Will Jacks doubled the damage six deliveries later by getting a flailing Ishan Kishan stumped for cheap, and then accounted for the struggling Travis Head soon after Pandya had scalped the Aussie off a no-ball. With the Sunrisers thus struggling at 81/2, Heinrich Klaasen joined Nitish Kumar Reddy at the crease hoping to turn things around, yet the hosts kept applying pressure as the boundary drought rose to 20 balls. It was not until the 18th over, Chahar’s last of the game, that the runs began to flow with Klaasen punishing him for 20, before Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins combined for three sixes in the final over bowled by Pandya to take the score to a respectable 162/5.

In response, the Indians found themselves in a similar hole early on as the swinging new ball restricted them to just four runs off the first two overs, but it was only a matter of time before Rohit Sharma discovered his usual purpose. The former skipper struck Mohammed Shami for two maximums in three ball, and then added one off Cummins for good measure before chipping one straight to cover to depart for a 16-ball cameo worth 26 runs. The wicket proved to be little reprieve though as it only saw fellow opener Ryan Rickelton taking on the aggressor role, manifested through three boundaries off Eshaan Malinga in the final over of the powerplay to make the score read a handsome 55/1. The Proteas was all set to depart next over when Zeeshan Ansari had him caught in the circle, but compatriot Heinrich Klaasen’s breached the stump line and added to SRH’s misery. Even though Rickelton still departed the next over — on the back of two fours on the trot — there was little looking back thereafter as Will Jacks and Suryakumar Yadav took over the onus with a match-winning stand of 52 in just 29 deliveries. All Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya needed to do was finish the game, a task they carried off with aplomb (almost — Hardik and Naman Dhir succumbed in an 18th over worth a solitary run when two were required) as the team got over the finish line with plenty of room to spare.

Hardik Pandya Today
With Bat 🗿🗿
With Ball 🗿🗿
Fielding 🗿🗿
Captaincy 🗿🗿
One of the Best Captain , Hardik Pandya always give his 💯#MIvSRH pic.twitter.com/yEkXNyFwqN

— legendary GOATS (@goats_legend) April 17, 2025