New Delhi: Mumbai Indians showcased a dominant performance to defeat Delhi Capitals by 40 runs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) here at the Feroz Shah Stadium on Thursday.
With this win, Mumbai has now moved on to the second place in the league standings whereas Delhi has slipped to the third place.
Chasing a score of 169, Delhi got off to a flying start as their opener Shikhar Dhawan hammered the visitors with regular boundaries. He was at his fluent best, enabling the team to score 48 runs in the powerplay overs. But Rahul Chahar cut short Dhawan’s (35) innings as he sent him back to the pavilion in the seventh over of the innings, giving Mumbai the first breakthrough.
Delhi were further pegged back as Shaw (20), Colin Munro (3), skipper Shreyas Iyer (3) were sent back to the pavilion in quick succession. Shaw and Iyer were dismissed by Chahar whereas Munro was clean bowled by Krunal Pandya. Delhi was reduced to 63 for four and they required 106 more runs for the win from 58 deliveries.
Rishabh Pant, who did not get selected for the Indian World Cup squad also failed to leave a mark. Pant (7) was clean bowled by Jasprit Bumrah and with his dismissal, Delhi’s hopes of a win crumbled.
After Pant’s dismissal, no other Delhi batsmen was able to stay at the crease for a long period of time. Both Bumrah and Lasith Malinga executed yorkers in the death overs to ensure Mumbai’s victory by 40 runs.
Earlier, knocks of 37* and 32 respectively, by Krunal and Hardik Pandya enabled Mumbai to score 168 runs for the loss of five wickets in the allotted twenty overs.
Mumbai got off to a flying start on a sluggish pitch, both the openers Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma took their time in getting adjusted with the pitch conditions but they started going after the bowling enabling the team to score 57 runs in the first six overs.
Amit Mishra gave Delhi their first breakthrough as he bowled a length ball on the stumps keeping a little low, Sharma (30) was playing inside the line and as a result, his stumps were rattled. Ben Cutting (2) failed to leave a mark, as he was sent back to the pavilion pretty early as Axar Patel trapped him plumb in front, reducing Mumbai to 62 for two.
Mumbai suffered another big blow as the set batsman de Kock (35) was dismissed owing to poor communication between him and Suryakumar Yadav, which resulted in the former’s run-out. Delhi kept on bowling tight overs, not allowing the visitors to score freely and as a result, Mumbai had scored just 104 runs in fifteen overs.
Yadav and Krunal stitched a brief 30-run partnership before Rabada dismissed Yadav (26) as he had him caught at the hands of the wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant.
However, Krunal and Hardik were able to provide late flourish to Mumbai as they struck big blows in the death overs and they stitched together a partnership of 54 runs. Delhi were not able to execute their yorkers and as a result, Mumbai posted 168 runs on the board in the allotted twenty overs. Hardik (32) was sent back to the pavilion by Kagiso Rabada whereas Krunal remained unbeaten on 37. Mumbai scored 50 runs in the last three overs of the innings.
On April 20, Mumbai Indians will play against Rajasthan Royals whereas Delhi Capitals faces Kings XI Punjab.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 168/5 (KH Pandya 37*, Q de Kock 35, A Mishra 1-18) defeat Delhi Capitals 128/9 (S Dhawan 35, AR Patel 26, RD Chahar 3-19) by 40 runs.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]