Rahul Tripathi struck a fine half-century and shared two vital partnerships with Priyam Garg and Nicholas Pooran as Sunrisers Hyderabad posted 193/6 in their 20 overs against Mumbai Indians in Match 65 of IPL 2022 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.
Tripathi struck 76 off 44 balls (4x9, 6x3) and shared a 78-run partnership with Garg (42, 26 balls, 4x4, 6x2) for the second wicket and a 76-run stand with Pooran (38, 22 balls, 4x3, 6x3) to recover after losing opener Abhishek Sharma (9) with 18 runs on the board after Sunrisers Hyderabad were asked to bat first.
Sunrisers need to win to remain in contention for a place in the playoffs and Tripathi helped put them in a good position to go for victory, scoring his runs at a good pace and his partners failed the right foil to his aggression as Sunrisers reached a strong position at 172/2 in the 17th over.
Tripathi, the 31-year-old batter who represents Maharashtra at the domestic level, completed his half-century in 32 balls, hitting seven fours and one six.
However, Mumbai Indians reeled them in by claiming three wickets -- starting with Nicholas -- in seven deliveries as they slumped to 176/5 in the 18th over. Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram (2) were out in this period as Sunrisers lost steam a bit. Ramandeep Singh gave away only two runs and claimed two wickets in that over as Sunrisers Hyderabad lost momentum.
They eventually finished at least 10-15 runs short as skipper Kane Williamson (8 not out) and Washington Sundar could manage only 13 runs in the last two overs.
Ramandeep Singh was the best of the Mumbai Indians bowlers as he claimed 3/30 in three overs.
The two partnerships that Tripathi figured in were the center-piece of Sunrisers' innings as that provided their batting the momentum it needed after Abhishek Sharma was out early, trying to loft a fullish ball from Daniel Sams, that was pitched slightly wide, but it went off the bottom edge to mid-off where Mayank Markande pocketed an easy catch.
Tripathi and Garg then took charge as they gave the Sunrisers innings momentum, scoring at a fast clip. Garg was particularly aggressive, hitting Daniel Sams for two boundaries in the third over. He got a life when a top edge off Sams was spilled as both Jasprit Bumrah and Sanjay Yadav both went for it.
Garg added insult to injury a delivery later as he pulled a waist-high short ball over fine-leg. He handed Sanjay Yadav similar treatment and hammered Markande for two boundaries in the ninth over before getting out eight runs short of a half-century, spooning a push to bowler Ramandeep Singh.
Tripathi then took charge as he blasted left-arm spinner, Sanjay Yadav, for two fours in the fourth over and took Bumrah to the cleaners off the next over, hitting the senior India pacer for a six followed by two boundaries as SRH raced to fifty.
He survived a stumping appeal thanks to DRS and after going slow a bit in the middle overs, hammered Sams for a six and two fours in the 16th over. He struck Riley Meredith for a six in the 17th over but the bowler had the last laugh as Tripathi holed out to long-on, the cross-batted shot was caught by Tilak Varma. To the naked eye, it looked like the ball had touched the grass but the third umpire ruled that the fielder had his fingers under it as he took the catch.
SRH lost the momentum a bit as Aiden Markram too was out cheaply as they could not capitalise on the solid platform provided by Tripathi, Garg and Pooran and fell short by 10-15 runs.
Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 193/5 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 76, Priyam Garg 42, Nicholas Pooran 38; Ramandeep Singh 3/20, Jasprit Bumrah 1/32) against Mumbai Indians.