IPL: Sunrisers beat Mumbai to keep play-off hopes alive

IPL scores (Hyderabad)

Sunrisers Hyderabad won by seven wickets

Mumbai Indians inns:  138-7 (R Sharma 67; Kaul 3-24, Kumar 2-29)

Sunrisers Hyderabad inns: 140-3 (Dhawan 62*, Henriques 44).

Match report

Sunrisers Hyderabad earned a significant win in their bid to qualify for the IPL play-offs as they beat table-topping Mumbai Indians on Monday.

Sunrisers stay fourth in the table despite the victory but, crucially, are five points clear of Kings XI Punjab in fifth, who need to win all of their three remaining fixtures - starting with their game against Kolkata Knight Riders on Tuesday - and still might not qualify.

Chasing a modest 138 to win, Shikhar Dhawan struck a superb 62 not out off 46 balls to see his side to victory with 10 balls to spare.

Earlier, Rohit Sharma (67 off 45) hit a fine half-century of his own for Mumbai but lacked support from the rest of the batting order as they stuttered to a score of only 138-7 after electing to bat first in Hyderabad.

Lendl Simmons, fresh from his fifty in his first IPL outing of the year in relieving Jos Buttler against Delhi Daredevils, kept his place in the side but this time departed for just one run from five balls.

Nitish Rana (nine) and Parthiv Patel (23) showed glimpses of getting the innings going but then both fell in consecutive Siddarth Kaul (3-24) overs.

Hardik Pandya came in and struggled for fluency, scoring just 15 from his 24 deliveries faced. However, at the other end, Sharma breezed through to a 34-ball half century.

But Sharma's exit at the beginning of the penultimate over of the innings led to a flurry of late wickets as Mumbai limped to a finish.

In reply, Sunrisers lost skipper David Warner (six) cheaply in the second over, but then Dhawan and Moises Henriques (44 off 35) swiftly corrected the innings with a 91-run stand for the second wicket.

When the partnership was finally ended in the 13th over, Yuvraj Singh (nine) - who had earlier injured his little finger on his right hand in the field - struggled immensely, facing six dot balls to start his innings.

That would not derail the Sunrisers run-chase though, with Dhawan bringing up a 36-ball fifty and firing the home side to a crucial victory.