Delhi Capitals on Tuesday defeated Mumbai Indians in another low scoring IPL match with Amit Mishra spinning magic.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians could only put up a total of 137-9 in 20 overs with skipper Rohit Sharma making 44 in 30 balls. After Sharma was out, no other Mumbai Indians could score a big total as wickets continued to fall at a regular interval. Mumbai Indians’ tormentor-in-chief Amit Mishra finished with an impressive spell of 4-24 in four overs.
Delhi Capitals began their run-chase on a cautious note knowing fully well that they did not need to play big shots to secure a win against the Mukesh Ambani-owned side. In-form batsman Shikhar Dhawan was unusually slow with his strike rate as he carefully negotiated the MI bowling. But Dhawan began to show his aggression after the strategic timeout in the 15th over as he hit Rahul Chahar for a huge six, his first in the match. He followed it up with a boundary. His excitement soon led to his downfall as he was out for 45 in the same over.
Dhawan later said that he was deliberately trying to bat cautiously since the asking run rate wasn’t great.
Mumbai Indians were in a great position to secure a win had Jasprit Bumrah not put paid to their hopes by bowling two no-balls in the 19th over. This brought the required run rate for Delhi Capitals to less than a run a ball.
In the end, Delhi Capitals defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets with five balls to spare.
Reacting to his side’s loss, Sharma said, “After the start we got, I thought we could have batted well in the middle overs, which we didn’t do. We didn’t capitalise on the start in the powerplay, which we failed to do again. Credit to Delhi bowlers – they kept the pressure up and kept taking wickets. We knew dew was going to come in. We saw in the last few games that it’s not that difficult to grip the ball. Dew is not really the factor. You need to play smart cricket to win. Just a small niggle, should be okay.”
Rishabh Pant, for his part, said, “When we started we were little under pressure. Mishy got us into the game. Bowlers did a great job to restrict them to 136. We like to talk it into the ground, take one match at a time. Lalit’s a great Indian player we’re trying to groom. Can do wonders on pitches like these. What we’ve learnt is if you keep wickets in hand you can chase any target.”
Amit Mishra was declared Man Of The Match.