With the odd ball not coming on to the bat, it was tough to get the boundaries from the get go but Sunrisers recovered from an ordinary powerplay to take the game deep with the help of opener Mayank Agarwal (48 off 41) and Heinrich Klaasen (36 off 16).
In the end, they fell short and were all out for 178 in 19.5 overs for their third defeat in five games.
While Agarwal got some much-needed runs, it was Klaasen’s knock that put Mumbai under pressure. The South African took the attack to veteran leggie Piyush Chawla, reverse sweeping him for a four and six in a 21-run over.
Sunrisers needed 60 off the last 30 balls and Marco Jansen (13 off 6) and Washington Sundar (10 off 6) made the game interesting with a string of boundaries before the latter paid the price for casual running between the wickets.
Playing his second IPL game, Tendulkar again bowled two overs with the new ball before returning to bowl the high pressure final over with Sunrisers needing 20 runs.
Tendulkar chose to bowl full and wide and was able to do the job for his team. He got his maiden IPL wicket in the process. Earlier, fast-rising Varma and Green took Mumbai to a competitive total. The other contributions came from skipper Rohit Sharma (28 off 18) and Ishan Kishan (38 off 31).
The 20-year-old Varma has been the stand out batter in the star studded Mumbai line-up and his rare talent and skill was on display again in his crucial cameo.
Mumbai were finding it tough to get going in the middle overs but Varma’s high quality knock gave the innings the much-needed momentum.
The lanky Marco Jansen was punished for 21 runs in the 15th over when Varma dispatched him for successive sixes, one in the cow corner and the other over the bowler’s head.
In the following over, the southpaw used his wrists beautifully for a four over extra cover off leggie Mayank Markande before sweeping him for a maximum for a 14-run over.
Green, who struggled to get his timing right initially, got down to business after Varma’s dismissal. The tall right-hander hammered three straight fours off T Natarajan to bring up his half-century before collecting a straight six in a 20-run over.
Natarajan leaked runs in the 20th over and ended up conceding 50 runs in his four overs. Mumbai managed to smash 62 runs in the last five overs.
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