Ashish Nehra hits the target, Mumbai Indians hit a low

If age 37 doesn’t quite describe Ashish Nehra’s antiquity, how about this: the left-arm seamer’s captain on his international debut, Mohammad Azharuddin, made his own debut in 1984.

And the guy whose team he faced in that match, Arjuna Ranatunga, played his first international game in 1982. In the twilight of his career, Nehra is bowling arguably as well as he had at any point in his career.

The bowling attack that he is leading now, too, reminds you of the 80s as the Sunrisers Hyderabad have been hunting in a pack. Medium pacers, in general, have been dominant this season, and in this department no other team possesses as much fire power as Hyderabad.

If Nehra won’t get you, Bhuvneshwar Kumar will. If they don’t, David Warner can always turn to Mustafizur Rahman who will unfailingly deliver. Brainder Sran and Moises Henriques don’t let up the pressure, either. Just how deadly their relentlessness is, was evident on Sunday.

On a favorable pitch in Visakhapatnam that offered some help to the seamers, Ashish Nehra ripped the Mumbai Indians’ top order open with a devastating opening spell to pave way for an emphatic 85 run wins for the Sunrisers.

Defending 177, Bhuvneshwar trapped opener Parthiv Patel in the first over and then handed the baton to Nehra.

The veteran bowler castled Rohit Sharma in the second over with a fuller length delivery and then returned to remove Ambati Rayudu with a vicious bouncer and Jos Buttler with a length ball that shaped away and took the outside edge, to leave Mumbai 30 for four.

Sran got Krunal Pandya’s leading edge with a back-of-the-hand slower ball and Mustafizur brought his bag of tricks and picked three wickets to put the match to bed. In the process SRH handed MI an 85-run hiding - the biggest win in terms of runs this season, to go with Hyderabad’s 10-wicket victory over Gujarat Lions.

The Hyderabad bowlers also made it look like a vicious track. It was anything but that as Shikhar Dhawan, David Warner and Yuvraj Singh showed earlier in the afternoon.

David Warner is the second highest run-getter this season, only behind Virat Kohli, and he has got those at a strike-rate (164.1) which is significantly higher than the Indian’s (144.6).

He began with customary nonchalance, tearing into the Mumbai bowlers, as Hyderabad raced away to 51 in the powerplay overs. Shikhar Dhawan, who had a sluggish start to the IPL, too has come into his own in the last few games.

While Warner would miss out on his sixth fifty of IPL 9, Dhawan got his third - and his most authoritative one - as his unbeaten 82 of 57 balls powered Hyderabad to par-plus total. Yuvraj Singh too showed the flashes of his former self as he smoked a couple of huge sixes over long on and midwicket.

He made no distinction between a good ball or a bad ball. Heck, he didn’t make any distinction between the ball or his own stumps as he was out in a most comical fashion – hit wicket trying to leave a widish delivery.

Brief scores: SRH 177/3 in 20 ovs (D Warner 48 off 33balls, S Dhawan 82 off 57 balls, Yuvraj 39 off 23 balls; M McClenaghan 1-38, Harbhajan 2-29) beat MI 92 in 16.3 overs (Harbhajan Singh 21 off 22 balls; A Nehra 3-15, M Rahman 3-16, B Sran 2-18, Henriques 1-18, B Kumar 1-23) by 85 runs.