Defending champion Mumbai Indians’ (MI) suffered another defeat in this season and this time it was the very low-scoring home game against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) at Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai) on Tuesday night.

Mumbai skipper won the toss and decided to field first. The visiting side struggled very much against MI bowlers as they were bundled out for just 118 runs in 18.4 overs.

While it was looking like an easy chase for the home team at the end of the first innings, the scenario was totally changed from the early second innings. The host side regularly lost their wickets as they were bowled out for just 87 runs in 18.5 overs and SRH won by 31 runs.

Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for MI’s defeat in this match.

Brilliant bowling and remarkable fielding from SRH players

All the SRH bowlers bowled sup0erbly in this low-scoring game. While they had not a decent total on the board, the bowlers had to bowl in tight line and length to secure a remarkable victory and all the bowlers did their job superbly.

However, Player of the Match award winner Rashid Khan (4-1-11-2) bowled outstandingly in his 4-over spell along with three-wicket taker Siddarth Kaul (4-0-23-3).

In the addition, the visitors’ fielding was superb. They hardly let to go their chances while they succeeded in their 50-50 chances too. Their hard works paid them with a remarkable 31-run victory.

No such partnership

In this kind of low-scoring chasing, few modest partnerships are enough to secure a victory. But while opener Suryakumar Yadav and no.5 batsman Krunal Pandya put an important 40-run partnership for the fourth wicket, no other partnership reached at least 15-run mark. Only two more partnerships reached the two-digit accounts and both partnerships were for 12 runs.

The main reason was most of MI batsmen failed to take the minimum responsibilities on the pitch. Apart from Suryakumar (34) and Krunal (24), no other batsmen reached the double-digit score and that’s why they were bowled out for such a tiny total.

Hardik Pandya’s failure to add runs on the scoreboard

Though it was true that MI batsman Hardik Pandya was not getting any support from the other end, the young batsman’s continuous dot balls with the bat were climbing the pressure for the team. The right-handed batsman faced 19 deliveries and scored only 3 runs. As he faced a good no. of deliveries, he should try to keep on the scoreboard which would build up some pressure on the opposite side as they had a very low total for defending. But the 24-year-old failed on his duty as MI lost the game in the very poor way