Mumbai: Opener Ryan Rickelton’s stormy century and his three half-century partnerships helped Mumbai Indians score 243 runs for five wickets against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday. Rickelton, apart from scoring an unbeaten 123 runs with eight sixes and 10 fours in 55 balls during the best innings of his career and the history of Mumbai, also made partnerships of 93 runs for the first wicket with Will Jacques (46), 55 runs for the third wicket with Naman Dhir (22) and 56 runs for the fourth wicket with captain Hardik Pandya (31).
Prafulla Hinge was the most successful bowler for Sunrisers, taking two wickets for 54 runs, while Ishan Malinga took 29 runs, Nitish Kumar Reddy took 31 runs and Saqib Hasan took one wicket each for 39 runs. Pandya won the toss and decided to bat. With Quinton de Kock out due to a wrist injury, Mumbai gave Jacques and Rickelton a chance to open the innings and both of them gave a great start to the team by adding 78 runs in the power play.
Rickelton welcomed Hinge with a six while Jacques hit two consecutive fours on the fast bowler. Both Rickelton and Jacques also hit two fours each on Sunrisers captain Pat Cummins. Jacques scored 16 runs off left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey with two sixes and a four, while Rickelton also scored 18 runs off Saqib Hussain with two sixes and a four. Captain Cummins then handed the ball to Nitish Kumar Reddy and on his very first ball, Jacques was caught by wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan. Jacques hit five fours and three sixes in his 22-ball innings. Rickelton completed the team’s century in the eighth over with a four off Nitish and then scored a half-century in 23 balls with a six on the next ball.
Suryakumar Yadav (05) also got caught by Abhishek Sharma at fine leg off the ball of Ishan Malinga in the next over. Despite losing wickets in successive overs, Rickelton continued its aggressive approach. He and Naman hit fours on Shakib and Cummins. Rickelton hit two consecutive sixes on Dubey, taking the team’s score beyond 150 runs in the 12th over. However, Naman waved Hinge’s ball in the air and was caught by Dubey. Rickelton completed his first IPL century in 44 balls with one run after hitting fours and sixes on consecutive balls of Nitish, which is the fastest century for the team. Pandya also completed the team’s double century in the 16th over with two fours and a six on consecutive balls from Hinge, but after that he was caught by Heinrich Klaasen at long off on Shakib’s ball. Facing 15 balls, he hit two sixes and the same number of fours.
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