Mumbai Indians (MI) made 235 for nine in their must-win match against Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) match in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Meanwhile, MI have to beat SRH by 171 runs or more to leapfrog Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on the points table and qualify for the play-offs. In order to do so, MI need to bowl SRH out for 65 or below.
From the word go, Ishan Kishan found the fence at will and scored his 84 runs off just 32 balls. Yadav's 82-run knock came off 40 balls during which he hit 13 fours and three sixes.
After Kishan's dismissal in the 10th over, SRH pulled things back, courtesy some smart captaincy from Manish Pandey, who replaced Kane Williamson out with an elbow niggle.
A courageous Pandey brought young left-arm spinner Abhishek Sharma into the attck in the 13th over and the bowler reposed his captain's faith by removing Kieron Pollard (12) and Jimmy Neesham in final two balls of the over to stand in chance for a hat-trick.
Suryakumar Yadav, who had not been at his best in the second leg so far, rose to the occasion when it mattered and took the onus of guiding MI innings after Kishan's dismissal.
He kept the scoreboard ticking with trademark cricketing shots, the most notable among them was a lofted hit over pacer Sidhharth Kaul's head to bring up his fifty in 24 balls.
The last five overs yielded 58 runs for MI during which Yadav was at his attacking best.
(With PTI inputs)
