Mumbai Indians secured a convincing victory in their match and clinched the fourth playoff spot in the Indian Premier League (IPL). They achieved this after a wait of nearly five hours following the defeat of Royal Challengers Bangalore by Gujarat Titans. Mumbai successfully chased down a target of 201 runs, thanks to an impressive unbeaten century off 47 balls by Cameron Green. Their qualification for the playoffs depended on Royal Challengers Bangalore losing their match, which ultimately happened. Mumbai Indians now have 16 points and are set to face Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator on May 24.

Initially, Mumbai’s victory seemed unlikely as Sunrisers Hyderabad’s opening pair of Mayank Agarwal and Vivrant Sharma had a blistering partnership of 140 runs in just 13.5 overs. However, Mumbai made a strong comeback in the death overs, restricting Sunrisers to only 32 runs in the last four overs. Although the slowdown in scoring appeared potentially costly, Mumbai’s chase demonstrated that even an additional 20 runs wouldn’t have made a significant difference.

Sunrisers briefly had the upper hand in their defence when Bhuvneshwar Kumar dismissed Ishan Kishan early, and the first three overs were quite economical, giving away only 24 runs. However, the turning point came in the fifth over when Rohit Sharma was given a lifeline on 12 by Sanvir Singh, and he capitalised on it along with Cameron Green to steer Mumbai to victory.

Sunrisers Hyderabad had an opportunity to take another wicket after dismissing Ishan Kishan early, but Rohit Sharma mistimed a shot to midwicket. Sanvir Singh dropped a straightforward catch, a significant moment in the match. Cameron Green smashed the next ball over deep midwicket for a six, making a difference in Nitish Kumar Reddy’s bowling figures. Had the catch been taken, Reddy would have had better figures in the powerplay. Kartik Tyagi also struggled with his lengths and overstepped, adding to his woes. Green accelerated Mumbai’s innings with four boundaries and two sixes in his first ten balls.

Green quickly reached his half-century in just 20 balls, while Rohit Sharma surpassed 11,000 T20 runs. Sunrisers’ spinners struggled to contain the batsmen on a pitch that offered little assistance, resulting in runs flowing freely. Rohit got another reprieve on 51 thanks to Sanvir’s dropped catch, but he fell soon after. Suryakumar Yadav joined Green and wasted no time, hitting a boundary off his first ball.

In the 16th over, Suryakumar and Green took on an inconsistent Umran Malik, scoring 20 runs and reducing the required runs from 41 off 30 balls to 21 off 24 balls. From there, Mumbai comfortably cruised to victory with two overs to spare. Green’s winning runs also marked his maiden T20 century, ensuring that Mumbai Indians did enough to secure the win.