After missing a couple of dollies in the last few games, Manish Pandey produced a stunning catch to dismiss in-form Ishan Kishan at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians are now up for a solid finish after Ishan and Quinton de Kock gave a perfect start against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma had a rare off day in business after opting to bat first in a small ground which has seen 200+ scores in almost every innings. Sandeep Sharma, who is playing his first game of IPL 2020, struck immediately in the first over.
However, it didn’t matter much as Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav steered the innings. Suryakumar played a couple of good looking shots to add 42 runs for the second wicket before he got out. This brought in-form Ishan Kishan in the middle, who and de Kock made most of the opportunities on offer.
Quinton de Kock, in particular, was spectacular with the bat hitting the boundaries. Ishan Kishan also matched up to the expectations before the Proteas batsman brought his first fifty of IPL 2020. But de Kock departed soon after reaching his fifty. Sunrisers Hyderabad sneaked in with one more thanks to Manish Pandey.
Manish Pandey grabs a sensational catch
This was sensational from Manish. He’s had a shocker by his own high standards today, but he has pulled off an absolute ripper now. Kishan will consider himself desperately unlucky here. It was a length ball and he flat-batted the lofted drive to the right of long-on.
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It had enough power, but not the elevation. Manish Pandey rushed across from long-on, threw himself at the ball – was parallel to the ground when he completed the two-handed catch and then had the sense to make sure that it didn’t pop out when his elbow hit the ground.
Watch the video:
— Cricsphere (@Cricsphere) October 4, 2020
Mumbai Indians lower-order provided the much-needed impetus in the death to post 208 runs at the end of 20 overs. Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya, and Kieron Pollard played late cameos to cross the 200+ runs in the board.
However, the total doesn’t look safe in this ground and Mumbai will have to bowl out of their skins to defend the target.
