Muristek
Mumbai, April 15
Rahul Tripathi and Aiden Markram's effortless batting display along with the pacers' magnificent show was the cornerstone of the Sunrisers Hyderabad's comfortable seven-wicket victory over Kolkata Knight Riders in their IPL match here today.
Mumbai Indians in search of light
Mumbai: An auction botched up by poor planning, Mumbai Indians will continue to grope in the dark in search of an ideal playing XI with an aim to end their five-match losing streak against Lucknow Super tomorrow. This is not the first time that Mumbai have had a losing streak of five matches but this is probably the first time that it seems that the team's think-tank do not have an idea of how to stem the rot that has set in. It is certainly not skipper Rohit Sharma's fault that the five-time champions had bungled big time at the auction table with below-par domestic signings save N Tilak Varma, which is haunting them. Against Lucknow, Sharma and Co. would have to put their best foot forward in order to tame the likes of Quinton de Kock, KL Rahul, Krunal Pandya, Ayush Badoni to name a few. Krunal and De Kock, in particular, would like to pose some serious challenges for the Mumbai brigade. PTI
The Hyderabad pace unit comprising the likes of T Natarajan (3/37), Umran Malik (2/27), Marco Jansen (1/26) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (1/37) restricted Kolkata to 175/8.
Tripathi, who smashed 71 off 37 balls, and Aiden Markram (68 not out of 36) then produced hostile knocks to take Hyderabad to their third successive win with 13 balls to spare.
For Kolkata, Nitish Rana scored 54 while Andre Russell was unbeaten on 49.
Hyderabad now have three wins from five games, while it was Kolkata's third loss in six games. With the green track not aiding the spinners, Hyderabad's Tripathi took the Kolkata's spin-heavy bowling unit to the cleaners.
Playing against his previous franchise, Tripathi smashed Varun Chakravarthy for a four followed by two back-to-back sixes in the eighth over that yielded 18 runs. He brought his maiden fifty this season off just 21 balls.
Tripathi found an able ally in Markram, who smashed six fours and four sixes, and when the former was out he took the onus upon himself to take his side over the line.
Brief scores: KKR: 175/8 (Rana 54, Russell 49*; Natarajan 3/37); SRH: 176/3 in 17.5 overs (Tripathi 71, Markram 68*; Russell 2/20) —