Following the high-scoring clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians on March 27 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad, former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan criticized Hardik Pandya’s batting performance as Mumbai Indians suffered their second loss of the season.
Despite chasing a daunting target of 278, MI fell short by 31 runs, with their momentum waning towards the end.
Pathan pointed out Hardik’s struggles to accelerate after a promising start, managing only 24 runs off 20 deliveries with a strike-rate of 120, the lowest among Mumbai’s batters on the day.
Expressing his dissatisfaction on social media, Pathan emphasized that a captain cannot afford such a low strike-rate when the team requires a much higher pace to complete the chase.
If the whole team is playing with the strike of 200, Captain can’t bat with the batting strike rate of 120.
— Irfan Pathan (@IrfanPathan) March 27, 2024
The match witnessed an extraordinary display of batting from Sunrisers Hyderabad, culminating in the highest total in IPL history. Travis Head set the tone early, followed by Abhishek Sharma’s aggressive batting against the Mumbai bowlers.
Despite the setback of losing an early wicket, Aiden Markram and Heinrich Klaasen steadied the innings, with Klaasen registering his second consecutive half-century.
While Mumbai started their chase well, led by Tilak Verma’s impressive 64 off 34 balls, strategic bowling from Sunrisers Hyderabad, especially captain Pat Cummins and Jaydev Unadkat, in the latter stages ensured their first victory of the season.
