Top-heavy Sunrisers get balance wrong again

Soon after the customary handshakes at the end of the match between both the teams, Mumbai Indians started a lap of honour at the Wankhede Stadium. Not for having won their first home game of the season, but to acknowledge 17,000 school kids who had turned up to celebrate their owners' 'Education for All' initiative and had literally turned the stadium into a sea of blue.

At the same time, a dejected orange army was climbing on to what appears to be a never-ending staircase to the Wankhede dressing room. Not that Sunrisers Hyderabad have been in great touch during the season, but they still entered the game as favourites, mainly due to Mumbai's mediocre offerings so far.

Once Sunrisers did a Mumbai in terms of team selection and inexplicable strategy with the bat, it became even easier for the hosts to double their victory count for the season comfortably.

Both teams have struggled to find the correct balance as the tournament approaches its midway mark. It reflects in the fact that Mumbai and Sunrisers have hardly ever retained the same team for successive outings. In fact, both these sides have used the most number of players so far this season. At the end of match 24, Chennai Super Kings have used just 11 players in six games. Sunrisers and Mumbai, on the other hand, have used 18 and 19.

Even on Saturday, both teams made two changes to their elevens. While Mumbai bolstered their bowling line-up, bringing in R Vinay Kumar and J Suchith, Sunrisers roped in Trent Boult and Hanuma Vihari. It meant Sunrisers were not just a batsman thin, but they also missed a big hitter in the middle and lower order.

Sunrisers continued to persist with two of their best batsmen at the top, but as always, carried the risk of struggling in the middle overs if both David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan perished early. That is precisely what happened on Saturday. Despite the quickfire start to the moderate chase of 158 by their openers, once both Dhawan and Warner were dismissed in the last two Powerplay overs, Sunrisers had to make do with a middle order that appeared far from aggressive.

If KL Rahul's place in an IPL XI is hard to justify, Vihari's inclusion in the side meant Sunrisers' batting unit had two batsmen who not only struggle for the big shots, but also find it difficult to rotate strike. That put additional pressure on Naman Ojha and Ravi Bopara. Neither of them could show off their hitting prowess against a disciplined Mumbai attack, and a very achievable target became gargantuan and ungettable in no time.

The fact that Sunrirsers could manage just five fours and a six in the last 14 overs of their innings summed up the dire straits their batting order appears to be in. The players' inability to hit boundaries made an otherwise struggling bowling unit pick up their richest haul of the season.

It resulted in spectators at the Wankhede, who had been roasted in the first half of the early game, making do with cheering wickets rather than sixes. With the home team being on the right side of a result for a change, they didn't mind at all.