• Klaasen fights losing battle for Sunrisers

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    Heinrich Klaasen’s best performance of the IPL season so far wasn’t enough for the Sunrisers Hyderabad, who lost to the Mumbai Indians by seven wickets on Wednesday.

    New Zealand left-arm quick Trent Boult and fellow pace bowler Deepak Chahar ripped apart the top of Hyderabad’s batting order as they collapsed to 35-5 before managing 143-8 thanks to Klaasen’s 71 off 44 balls.

    Five-time champions Mumbai achieved their target with 26 balls to spare after Rohit Sharma registered his second successive half-century, smacking eight fours and three sixes in his 46-ball 76 to lead the chase.

    It was Mumbai’s fourth straight win and propelled them three spots from sixth in the 10-team table led by the Gujarat Titans.

    The Sunrisers, who are captained by Australia’s Pat Cummins, slumped to their sixth loss in eight matches.

    Rohit and England’s Will Jacks (22) laid the platform for Mumbai in their second-wicket partnership of 64.

    Jacks got out but Rohit stood firm to raise his fifty in an another key stand of 53 with Suryakumar Yadav, who made an unbeaten 40 off 19 balls.

    The match began with a tribute to the victims of the deadly attack in Kashmir as a one-minute silence was observed and teams wore black armbands in Hyderabad.

    Twenty-six men were killed on Tuesday when gunmen burst out of forests at a popular tourist spot in Pahalgam and raked crowds of visitors with automatic weapons.

    The BCCI took the decision to remove the cheerleaders and put a halt to the celebratory fireworks and music customary at IPL matches, as a mark of respect for the victims.

    Boult got Mumbai off to a perfect start by dismissing Australian opener Travis Head for a duck after the left-hander mis-timed a shot to deep backward point.

    Chahar had Ishan Kishan caught behind for one in the next over, the batsman walking off to a timid appeal with ultra-edge technology later suggesting there was no edge.

    Boult and Chahar continue to do damage and accounted for Abhishek Sharma and Nitish Reddy, leaving Hyderabad five down when skipper Hardik Pandya struck in the ninth over.

    Klaasen counter-attacked with a string of boundaries and put on 99 runs with impact substitute Abhinav Manohar (43).

    Klaasen finally became pace bowler Jasprit Bumrah’s 300th T20 wicket when he was caught at deep backward square.

    © Agence France-Presse

    Photo: BCCI

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    Simon Borchardt