Mumbai Indians (MI) Cameron Green was a happy man on Sunday as the Australia all-rounder scored his maiden IPL century. As MI were chasing 201 against Sunrisers Hyderabad with one eye on that playoff spot, Green singlehandedly powered MI to an eight-wicket win and gave them hope for qualification to the knockout stage. Rohit Sharma too stepped up for his team in a must-win game.
But Green was the man in focus as he got to his maiden IPL ton with a single while also powering MI to victory. As soon as the MI batter nudged Bhuvneshwar Kumar towards midwicket and pierced the gap between the midwicket and mid-on for a single, Green was jumping in joy and so were his teammates in the dugout. The MI batter had his arms aloft while MI players cheered from the dugout.
Notably, coming in to bat at No.3 after Mumbai lost an early wicket in the form of Ishan Kishan, Green tilted the momentum towards his team as he scored 26 runs off the first nine balls he faced. Green built on this blistering start and went on to score a half-century off just 20 balls. The MI all-rounder never teed off from this momentum and eventually scored a century off 47 balls.
Green went back to the dressing room with an unbeaten 100 to his name. Meanwhile, Rohit Sharma (56 off 37) and Suryakumar Yadav (25* off 16) also made handy contributions. Earlier, with the ball, Aakash Madhwal (4/37) was the star for MI as the right-arm pacer struck at the right time to take away all the momentum.
Mumbai eye that fourth playoff spot
With this crucial win, Mumbai Indians (MI) have kept themselves alive in the tournament and are still in the hunt for that playoff spot. The five-time champions have 16 points from 12 games and have a decent net run rate (-0.044).
MI are placed at the fourth position for now but they will be pipped by Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) if the latter manage to beat table-toppers Gujarat Titans in their last league game.
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