Hyderabad: Former Australian cricketer Matthew Hayden lauded Rohit Sharma’s “well-measured” knock of 70 against Sunrisers Hyderabad and said the opener’s innings had “vision, stability, and perfect timing.”
After restricting SRH to to 143/8, MI’s chase was without any major hiccups as Rohit guided his team to victory for a second successive match with 70 (46) and MI secured victory with 4.2 overs to spare to move to the third place in the standings.
With his sublime 70 off just 46 balls, Rohit became only the second Indian after Virat Kohli to Score 12000 runs in T201s. Rohit, who smashed three sixes, also overtook batting coach Kieron Pollard as the player to hit the most sixes for Mumbai Indians. The former skipper now has 260 sİxes for the team, two more than Pollard.
“It was excellent, well-measured innings. There was power, but more than anything, it was about his tempo. He knew he had a moderate total to chase. When you look at the seven-wicket victory, Mumbai Indians had plenty in the tank. It was a very emphatic and confident win, something Sunrisers Hyderabad clearly lacked. Rohit’s innings had vision, stability, and perfect timing. It made the rest of the team rocket ahead,” Hayden said on JioHotstar.
Batting first, SRH were five down for 35 early on. Then came a special knock from Heinrich Klaasen (71) and a strong fighting partnership between Klaasen and Abhinav Manohar (43). Klaasen went on the charge with a 15-run over off Vignesh Puthur before bringing up his first fifty this season off 34 deliveries. SRH’s 100 came up in the 17th over, followed by a strong final flourish that saw them post 143/8.
Hayden also shared his thoughts on what went wrong for Sunrisers Hyderabad and said, “The simplest explanation is just a lack of confidence. When you start losing the way SRH has, it’s tough to bounce back. They were seen as benchmark batters, but right now they’re far from that. This has led to issues in the middle order. It comes down to regaining confidence—not just in the top order but across the unit.”
“They need to stop overthinking and focus on their own game. Right now, SRH are chasing this tournament, chasing combinations, and even chasing the strength that used to be their powerful batting unit,” he said.
(IANS)
