Will Jacks clinched two wickets and scored 36 runs with the bat as Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets at the Wankhede Stadium. With that, Hyderabad lost their fifth game of the season. MI’s biggest match-winner on the day was Will Jacks, who had made a quiet start to the season, but showed all his value in his sixth match with his new team.
Will Jack’s 26-ball 36 was an important innings, but he made an even bigger impact with his offspin, bossing his match-up against SRH’s entirely left-handed top three and finishing with 2 for 14 in three overs.
Mumbai Indians defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by four wickets in match 33 of the ongoing Indian Premier League at the Wankhede Stadium. The surface was designed for the bowlers to have a successful day, and it resulted in such as the match between Mumbai and Hyderabad produced a low-scoring thriller. Even though 162 isn’t ideally a low-scoring match but the T20 cricket has changed drastically in the recent past, making it look as one.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : Square boundaries are 60 meters and 67 meters, straight boundary is 73 meters. The pitch was watered this morning and looks damp. If you poke it with a pen, it goes in easily which suggests there’s still some underlying moisture. It’s a good-looking pitch to be honest. Yes there’s a little bit of moisture.
Beautiful coverage of grass. I’m expecting it to play consistently, the bounce will be consistent. There might be spin from one end which is dry. I imagine both teams will want to chase. I think it’s a good wicket, I think it’s going to be good for quicks with the new ball, a little bit of spin and good for batting reckons Murali Kartik and Michael Clarke
Toss : Mumbai Indians skipper Hardik Pandya won the toss and chose to bowl with no changes in the playing XI and Rohit Sharma as Impact Sub. Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper Pat Cummins batting first made no changes in the playing XI and Rahul Chahar was the Impact Sub.
Will Jacks and clinical bowlers restricts SRH to 162 in 20 overs
Keeping Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma to just 46 runs in the powerplay is a huge deal. In fact, this was SRH’s lowest powerplay score since 2024 when they have not lost a wicket. Speaking of wickets, MI should have gotten rid of both these batters very early. Abhishek came down the track the very first ball and edged one behind but Will Jacks shelled the chance.
Three balls later, Deepak Chahar was left frustrated again as Karn Sharma couldn’t grab a chance at midwicket that would have seen Head depart. The openers rode their luck as Abhishek too mistimed to Karn with the ball landing just short and hurting the leg spinner in the process. The youngster managed to then redeem himself with a few boundaries but in terms of the scoring, the home side pulled off an excellent job.
The first over of the match was an ominous one for MI. Deepak Chahar found Abhishek’s edge first ball only for the overhead chance to burst through Jacks’ hands at slip. Then Head flicked uppishly only for the ball to fall short of the diving Karn at midwicket. The latter event happened in the third over as well, this time off Abhishek’s bat, and this time Karn’s futile dive also gave him a split webbing. He left the field and didn’t return to bowl.
MI reaped the rewards finally after the powerplay. Hardik Pandya, who gave his side a scare by going down with a possible injury while bowling, pulled himself back to strike in the same over as Abhishek fell for 40. At the other end, Jacks found some purchase with his offspin and had Ishan Kishan stumped for just 2. For a brief moment, Hardik thought he had Head dismissed as well when the Australian hit him straight to the fielder at deep midwicket but the MI skipper had overstepped.
Fortune smiled on SRH again in the tenth over, when Head was caught on the square-leg boundary off a no-ball from Hardik. But the bigger story was that Head was batting on 24 off 24 at that point, struggling to time the ball on a pitch where the ball simply wouldn’t come on to the bat. Abhishek had looked a little more fluent, scoring 40 off 27 before being caught on the point boundary off Hardik in the eighth over.
That wicket had come right after another ominous moment for MI, when Hardik had pulled up in his follow-through with what seemed like an injury to his left shin or ankle. He even seemed to gesture to his dugout to call for a substitute, but in the end he dusted himself off and continued bowling.
Head couldn’t capitalise on that reprieve though as Jacks induced a false shot on a surface that was aiding the slower bowlers to have the opener caught near long off. Even Heinrich Klaasen found the going hard as the MI bowlers made full use of the sticky nature of the pitch to deny SRH any momentum whatsoever.
SRH only scored 46 in the powerplay despite not losing a wicket, and while the slow, grippy conditions played their part, MI’s bowlers also used them beautifully, with Bumrah standing out, giving away just 10 runs in his two powerplay overs.
MI brought on Will Jacks as soon as the powerplay ended, and he immediately began finding grip and turn. After Hardik had broken the opening stand in the eighth over, Will Jacks struck his first blow in the ninth, turning an off break sharply past the flailing bat of the charging Ishan Kishan to have him stumped. Then, changing ends to bowl the 12th over, Will Jacks ended Head’s miserable stay, having him caught at long-off for 28 off 29 balls.
The pattern continued at the death as well. Both Klaasen and Nitish Reddy just couldn’t find the boundary and eventually, something had to give. Nitish, in an attempt to clear the ropes, chipped one straight to long on to give Boult his first wicket. The release finally came in the 18th over as Klaasen took on Chahar for 21 runs to not only boost his strike rate but also give SRH a much-needed fillip to their innings.
Head’s dismissal – a failure to clear the straight boundary – was a theme of SRH’s innings, with all their batters struggling for power down the ground. Only four fours came from the eighth to the 15th overs, and all four were hit behind the wicket. Klaasen and Nitish Kumar Reddy batted through most of this period, putting on 31 off 33 balls.
A three-run 17th over from Trent Boult, which included the wicket of Reddy, caught at long-on, left SRH 115 for 4 with 140 looking a fair distance away.
But they managed to collect 47 off the last three, with Klaasen, Aniket and Cummins finally ending their sixes drought. Two of the five sixes involved exquisite skill from Klaasen and Aniket over the covers, but three came off hittable full-tosses. There were seven full-tosses in all in the last three overs, suggesting that dew may have already started setting in.
One of those full-tosses, however, came from Bumrah, who bowls the most unhittable full-tosses in world cricket, and bowled Klaasen as he attempted to make room. His 19th only went for four runs, sandwiched between expensive overs from Deepak Chahar and Hardik.
However, when Bumrah returned for the penultimate over, the show was over as he bowled a low full toss at pace to uproot Klaasen’s offstump. SRH still found the ideal finish despite Bumrah’s excellent over as Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins combined to clear the ropes thrice in the final over bowled by Hardik to drag their side past 160.
Will Jacks and Hardik Pandya’s all round show steers MI home
It has taken a while but Rohit Sharma finally looked in the mood for his first big score of IPL 2025. SRH made a decent start by conceding just seven runs from the first two overs. However, a streaky six got Rohit going as he followed it up with a delightful pull shot. In the next over, Rohit took on Cummins for another massive six to race to 25 off just 13 balls.
But in an anti-climatic moment, Rohit then creamed one straight to cover to depart. The run rate was then given another boost, this time by Ryan Rickelton as the South African fetched a hat-trick of boundaries against Eshan Malinga to ensure MI finished the powerplay on a strong note.
Impact sub Rohit took his chances early on, enjoyed a bit of luck, including an edged six over deep third, and hit a couple of trademark pulled sixes off his hip to give MI early impetus.
Rickelton struggled early on, got going with three successive fours off Eshan Malinga, and enjoyed a strange stroke of luck when he was caught in the covers off Zeeshan Ansari only for an umpire’s review to confirm a no-ball – for keeper Klaasen’s gloves encroaching in front of the stumps before the batter had hit the ball. But Rickelton was out soon after, miscuing a Harshal Patel slower ball to backward point.
Zeeshan Ansari almost had his man when Rickelton succumbed to the pressure, to find the fielder but the third umpire gave him a new lease of life after spotting Klaasen having his gloves in front of the stumps when the batter hit the ball. The left-hander almost made them pay with back-to-back boundaries off Harshal Patel but the bowler had the last laugh with a slower delivery. Between them, though, the openers had shaved 57 runs off MI’s target.
From thereon though, it was all MI as Will Jacks and Suryakumar Yadav went on a boundary hitting spree to put the hosts on top. The duo hit Ansari for a four and a six and Will Jacks then welcomed Rahul Chahar to the crease with a six. Ansari was in for a rough night as he conceded two more sixes as MI went on a rampage.
Cummins had to bring himself back into the attack to finally end the threatening partnership. The skipper then brought some spark into the clash by claiming another well-set batter as Will Jacks slapped one straight to mid off.
Then Will Jacks and Suryakumar combined for the decisive partnership of the match, putting on 52 for the third wicket in just 29 balls. They hit four sixes and a four in three overs from leg spinners Ansari and Rahul Chahar – who came on as Impact Sub, replacing Mohammed Shami who still had an over of his quota remaining – who were still finding grip off this surface but ever so often erred in line or length.
By the time Cummins broke this stand, MI needed 42 at less than a run a ball. Hardik hurried them towards victory, hitting a six and three fours – including a glorious back-foot punch through wide long-on off Cummins – and they finally got home at the start of the 19th over, after a bizarre 18th that brought Malinga two wickets for just one run.
That little spark provided by Cummins was quickly wiped out by Hardik Pandya. The MI captain came out all guns blazing, fetching two boundaries off the first three balls he faced and then targeted Harshal for a six and a four as well in his bid to quickly finish the chase off.
Needing 1 more run, Hardik departed in his attempt to go for the glory shot and Malinga added more to his wicket tally with a perfect yorker to trap Naman Dhir leg-before-wicket. The drama finally came to an end when Tilak Varma pulled out a reverse sweep off the first ball in the penultimate over.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Pat Cummins the losing SRH skipper said : It wasn’t the easiest wicket. Few runs short, we would have liked a couple more with the bat. Tricky wicket, when you come here you expect it to be really fluent and fast, just wasn’t that. They bowled really well, shut down a lot of our hitting areas. I thought we had all our bases covered, with 160 you feel like you are a little bit short. We gave it a good crack with the ball.
We thought we needed wickets, we had plenty of death bowling, we knew the impact player would bowl 1-2 overs that’s why we went with Rahul. You have got to play well away from home to make the final, unfortunately it hasn’t clicked so far this season, we have a short break and we go again. Every game we talk about assessing, the boys did well to get through the powerplay and there wasn’t reckless hitting, next game is at home and we know that venue pretty well.
Hardik Pandya the winning MI skipper said : I think specially the way we bowled today was very smart and spot on. We stuck to simple basic plans. And figured out Certain deliveries were not easy to hit. Credit to the bowlers to sticking to that and making them play some good shots. We were kind of squeezing them. If u see from the look of it, it looked like a good wicket. There was greenness to the grass as well.
The first couple of overs that Deepak bowled, couple of balls got stuck there we realized that may be change of pace will be useful on this wicket. I think as soon as we figured that out, we were backing that with the same intent. We trying to mixing it up. Slower balls even if it is gripping, you try that again and again, batter can line you up. We executed the yorkers very smartly in those middle overs when they couldn’t get any rhythm.
That is the beauty of Jacks. He has three facets. He can be a gun fielder. Can bowl those crucial overs and in batting he has so much explosiveness. That is the reason he is part of the team. We back him. Am excited and today it came off for him. When we needed 42 off 42, we felt it was the tricky part.
Rather take your time. Not to get too excited and lose wickets and all of a sudden you are in shambles. That point of time we realized lets take a couple of overs time. The boundaries will come and as soon as the boundaries come, the pressure will be off. At the end, we kind of pushed the pedal. It is going to be a great game. It is going to be a packed house. We are sure. Just making sure we rest well.
Will Jacks Player of the Match for his 36 runs and 2 wickets in the match said : The tournament, we had a little bit of a slow start as a team and myself personally. As everyone knows it was incredibly frustrating. But I just want to contribute to wins. Tough start, dropping a catch off the first ball. It dipped and I was late on it. I should have caught it. Just taken me little bit of time to settle into the new franchise.
Kind of adjustment period for everyone. Now we are gelling as a team. We are confident and comfortable to put performances out there. We have a great set up. Loads of star players. I am taking advantage of everyone around me and hopefully it can continue.
I would want to do whatever the team requires of me. Be it number 7 Or the number 3 it wad today. It is about communication and good reasoning and I will do as the team requires. As long as the team is winning, I don’t care. If you are bowling slower balls, it was tricky to play. Have been working on being attacking against spin. Coming from England, coming to India, will keep working on it.
Mumbai Indians came up with a clinical performance with both bat and ball to secure back-to-back wins in IPL 2025 as Sunrisers Hyderabad were subjected to another loss. The runners-up from 2024 found the going tough on a Wankhede surface where stroke-making wasn’t the easiest and as a result, their wait for a first away win continued.
In the middle overs. With the surface aiding deliveries that lacked pace, MI did really well with the ball in the middle overs to ensure SRH scored at just above six. On the other hand, the home side went on a boundary-hitting spree in the same phase, outplaying their opponents.
Mumbai Indians (MI) won an important toss, got the best of the conditions, and made excellent use of them to run away to their third win of IPL 2025, beating Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by four wickets. They sent SRH in on an unusually sluggish pitch at the Wankhede Stadium and restricted them to 162 for 5. They then hunted down their target with 11 balls to spare, with a bit of help from dew – though not enough to force a ball change.
Will Jacks’ three overs allowed MI to delay their use of their Impact Player, even though they lost their leg spinner Karn Sharma – Player of the Match in their last game against Delhi Capitals – to an injury before he could bowl a ball. Not being forced to bring on a bowler as his replacement allowed MI to sub in Rohit Sharma at the start of their chase, and he gave them impetus with an early cameo. With Ryan Rickelton, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma and Hardik Pandya also contributing handily, MI never allowed SRH’s bowlers to get a sniff.
For all that, though, this was a match won by MI’s bowlers. Jasprit Bumrah executed best, but their other fast bowlers also played their part in constricting SRH with a plan heavy on slower balls and yorkers on a surface where powering the ball down the ground seemed impossible at times.
This was why SRH only managed to post 162, despite a 59-run opening stand from Abhishek Sharma and Travis Head, both of whom enjoyed major slices of luck along the way. That SRH got that far was down to a strong finish, with the 18th and 20th overs bringing 21 and 22 runs respectively as Heinrich Klaasen, Aniket Verma and Pat Cummins hit the only five sixes of their innings.
MI win this by 4 wickets. They stay on 7th. SRH are 9th on the table and have same points as CSK from 7 games. MI were the more clinical and polished side. MI won the toss, elected to bowl on a slightly damp deck. Chahar set the tone in his first two overs but the openers of SRH had close escapes. Abhishek again started off on a quick note but fell for 40. Head scratched around in his stay and Kishan fell for a single digit score, yet again.
In the end, Klaasen and Verma added a few quick runs. They tallied 162 which was well below par. Rohit started off on an attacking note and departed after a cameo. Rickleton kept playing his shots till he got out and so did SKY. Will Jacks played a mature knock and Hardik played a cameo to tie the scores.
MI lost a couple of wickets and a couple of reviews but got home in the 19th over. These two points will add to the confidence of the MI unit. SRH will have to go back to the drawing board. They have played three on the road and lost all of them. They have a 2 out of 4 record at home.
Have they woken up the sleeping beast? 2024 wasn’t their year. 2025 seemed to be a replica. But is the campaign back on track? May be one or two more wins will make it look more convincing. MI unit seems to be a team which has most bases covered. Their batting fire power is envious. They have Pandya, Will Jacks and Santner as all-rounders. They have Rickelton getting better. Rohit is yet to fire. Bumrah is slowly getting into his elements and MI are ready to roar more.
SRH on the other hand have blown more cold than hot. They were finalists last season but have been poor this season after starting off the season with a bang. Cummins and Co. will be under massive pressure to turn it around. They also have the artillery needed to be a strong unit. But will they be able to bounce back quickly as time is running out for them. CSK who have had a similar fate face these two teams next. The eternal heavyweights are trying to come up
With a campaign that appears to be revitalised with these two wins on the trot, MI will look to make it three in three as they take on their arch-rivals CSK on Sunday in a blockbuster clash. SRH on the other hand will hope for a belter of a surface to welcome MI in the return clash after a six-day break.
Also Read: MI vs SRH: Will Jacks’ All-Round Brilliance Stuns SRH