Alzarri Joseph's record breaking 6/12 gives Mumbai Indians famous win over Sunrisers Hyderabad

3.4-1-12-6 – Alzarri Joseph achieved this feat while playing against Sunrisers Hyderabad at Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Warner. Shankar. Hooda. Rashid. Bhuvi. Kaul. It’s a list of players that Joseph ticked off today. The long list includes the opener, middle-order, lower middle-order, and tailenders. Picking six out of 10 wickets in a twenty over game where one gets to bowl just four overs, it has been a sensational effort from him. Joseph’s spell along with Pollard’s brilliant 46 off 26 balls helped Mumbai Indians to register a 40 runs victory.

The pitch in Hyderabad has traditionally favoured spinner rather than pacers. However, the pitch offered in this match saw some green patches of grass and Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma played with both Jason Behrendorff and Alzarri Joseph.

Sunrisers Hyderabad won the toss and inserted Mumbai Indians in but Rohit started off confidently, hitting six up front. In the first two overs of the innings, Rohit Sharma dominated the innings while his counterpart Quinton de Kock played the anchor’s role. However, just when Mumbai Indians was looking solid for big, Nabi, who has been in dazzling form trapped Rohit Sharma.

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Post this, the wickets kept tumbling like a pack of cards for the men-in-blue, and at one stage reaching three-figure mark was also looking like a lost dream. However, Pollard, who is known for his power-hitting skills showed the World yet again why he has been given that tag. In the last two overs, he along with his partner smashed 32 runs to help Mumbai Indians reach a respectable total of 136 runs.

Going by the standards set by David Warner and Jonny Bairstow, it looked that Sunrisers Hyderabad will have an easy chase. However, Alzarri Joseph had other plans as he ripped through Hyderabad’s batting order and eventually registered the best IPL figures. Earlier, the record was with Sohail Tanvir, who while playing for Rajasthan Royals in 2008 scalped 6 wickets for 14 runs.

Both of them were dismissed within the powerplay itself. While Rahul Chahar dismissed the English cricketer for 15, Alzarri Joseph struck off his first ball in the IPL and dismissed the Australian for 16.

This exposed the middle-order completely and MI forged back into the game. Joseph bowled terrific lines and lengths and got the better of Vijay Shankar as well. Then, Manish Pandey also walked back to the pavilion after scoring 16 runs while Yusuf Pathan got out for a block.

Wickets kept on tumbling after this. Alzarri Joseph was mind boggling on his debut and is definitely a superstar in the making. The Windies pacer picked up wickets and helped Mumbai win the match by 40 runs. At the halfway mark, Mumbai Indians didn’t even seem to be in the contention to win the game. The Pollard drop cost SRH 38 runs and that is what has made the difference.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Mumbai Indians registered their third win of the season. 
• Alzarri Joseph was awarded as the man-of-the-match.
• Alzarri Joseph registered best IPL figures on his debut.