Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav won the losing battle for Delhi. Both of them helped their team win the match with a brilliant half-century partnership.
However, Mumbai’s record in the opening matches of IPL is not good. Often Rohit’s team loses the opening match and comes back later. This time Mumbai would like to start with a win. On the other hand, Rishabh Pant would like to win his team.
Earlier, Mumbai had posted a challenging score of 177 for five despite blows from left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav with the help of a big half-century from Ishan Kishan (81 not out off 48 balls, 11 fours and two sixes).
Rohit Sharma (41 off 32 balls, four fours, two sixes) and Ishan put on 67 runs for the first wicket to give a very good start to the invited Mumbai, but apart from these two, none of the other Mumbai batsmen were late. Got it. Kuldeep was Delhi’s most successful bowler. He took three wickets for 18 runs in four overs.
In response, Delhi’s top and middle order faltered. Everything was going well for Delhi till three overs. He had scored 30 runs in these overs but suddenly he lost three wickets in four balls and two runs and this included the wicket of captain Rishabh Pant (1).
Leg spinner Murugan Ashwin (2 for 14) took the ball in the fourth over. On his second ball, Aryan Juyal, who was keeping wicketkeeper in place of Ishan at the start of the innings, dropped his catch but he managed to take the wickets of Tim Seifert (21) and then Mandeep Singh (0) on the next ball.
Pant, taking extra bounce of the next over from Tymal Mills, caught the third man on the next ball. The score became 32 runs for three wickets.
Shaw was handling the innings well but he again lost his wicket due to laxity in playing the pull shot. Basil Thampi (3 for 35) created a ruckus in the Delhi camp by dismissing Rovman Powell on another short pitch ball in the same over.
Shardul Thakur (22 off 11 balls) seemed to be in the mood to bat to compensate for the bowling. He hit three fours in an over off Bumrah but Thampi got him caught at extra cover in his next spell.
Lalit and Akshar took over the responsibility from here. Axar displayed his prowess of hitting long shots with sixes off Bumrah and Daniel Sams. Lalit looked to maintain the run-rate by saving the first wicket, but later smashed sixes and fours on Sams to sabotage Mumbai’s plans.
Delhi needed 28 runs in the last three overs but Sams conceded 24 runs in the 18th over of the innings, which included two sixes from Axar. Akshar hit the winning boundary in Bumrah’s next over, which continued Mumbai’s losing streak.
Earlier, nothing went well for Shardul Thakur (47 runs in four overs), who opened the bowling for Delhi. Rohit and Ishan hit sixes in their first two overs. After this he dropped the catch of Rohit when he was playing for 25 runs. Mumbai scored 53 runs for no loss in the powerplay.
However, Rohit could not take much advantage of the lifeline and was caught at deep midwicket off Kuldeep’s ball. Anmolpreet Singh (8), who came to take his place, was forced to give an easy catch by Kuldeep. The spinner made his spell crucial by taking the wicket of Kieron Pollard.
Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel stitched an unbroken 75-run partnership in five overs to lift Delhi Capitals out of troubled situations to a four-wicket win over Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday.
Chasing a target of 178, Delhi were struggling at 104 for six in the 14th over but Lalit (48 not out in 38 balls with four fours ans two sixes) and Axar (38 not off 17 balls with two fours and three sixes) took the responsibility from here and took his team’s score to 179 runs in 18.2 overs.