Once Shikhar Dhawan and David Warner got out in the sixth and seventh balls of the IPL 2015 winner-takes-all match, it was curtains for the Sunrisers Hyderabad and another shot at the title for the Mumbai Indians.
SRH, even if their middle order has fared better of late, have depended on their two openers, particularly skipper Warner, just a little too much in IPL 2015, and the moment Dhawan was castled by a Lasith Malinga yorker and Warner top-edged a Mitchell McClenaghan short delivery next ball, you could almost predict what was coming.
What came was an SRH struggle of alarming proportions, with Eoin Morgan and Moises Henriques also unable to do the repair job, leaving the team caving to a never-going-to-be-enough 113 all out in 20 overs.
Such was the state of their batting that Dale Steyn, their No.11, was the second highest scorer in the innings with 19 (11b, 3x4), with only KL Rahul notching more with 25 (24, 2x4) to his name.
The fact of the matter was, after Warner and Dhawan fell, Henriques and Morgan had to put on a big partnership to give their bowlers an opportunity to defend the total, but it was not to be as Malinga (4-0-17-2), McClenaghan (4-0-16-3) and Jagadeesha Suchith (3-0-14-2) all made merry.
The chase was as easy as one, two and three for MI, who lose just a single wicket, with Parthiv Patel (51 n.o., 37b, 9x4) and Lendl Simmons (48, 44b, 4x4, 2x6) hauling down the target with 37 balls to spare.
In a game which would have seen the winner clinch a playoff spot and the loser knocked out, it was MI who came to the fore and SRH who just could not hold their nerve.
Pressure either brings out the best in you or the worst, and after Warner and Dhawan fell, there just was no stopping the MI juggernaut,
Mumbai Indians, with their seventh win in eight matches, zoomed all the way to second in the table, with it setting up a cracking Qualifier 1 against the Chennai Super Kings at the Wankhede on Tuesday.
MI propelled all the way to second thanks to the earlier Sunday match between RCB and Delhi Daredevils getting washed out in Bengaluru. Had RCB beaten DD in that match, they would have finished in the top two, but they were denied that chance by the rain.
