By Niharika Raina
New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) Veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla and left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff picked 3/22 and 3/23 respectively, while skipper Rohit Sharma was at his vintage best in a 45-ball 65, also his first half-century in the IPL after 25 innings, as Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by six wickets on the last ball of a thrilling match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.
The victory also means that Mumbai have got their first points on the board in the competition while Delhi faced their fourth consecutive loss of the tournament. Axar Patel and David Warner slammed contrasting fifties in Delhi’s 172 in 19.4 overs, while Anrich Nortje and Mustafizur Rahman were brilliant in their death overs bowling. But Tim David took Mumbai home on the last ball with Cameron Green giving him company.
Compared to Delhi’s 29/0, Mumbai had a blazing start by reaching 42/0 in their three overs. Rohit was at his vintage best, timing the ball well and picking the lengths very quickly in hitting two fours and a six in a 14-run opening over.
On the other hand, Ishan Kishan hit the ground running by smacking three boundaries through the off-side against Mustafizur. Nortje was smacked for two fours and a six, which Rohit elegantly whipped over wide long-on.
Rohit and Ishan took two boundaries each off Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav as Mumbai finished power-play with 68 for no loss, with the Mumbai captain being innovative in his reverse-sweep off the left-arm spinner.
The 71-run opening partnership came to an end when Ishan was run-out at the non-striker’s end in the eighth over. Rohit produced the shot of the match by pulling Nortje high over deep mid-wicket for six in the ninth over, before getting his fifty in 29 balls.
Tilak Varma got some applause from Rohit when he danced down the pitch to slam a fabulous lofted drive over long-off for six off Kuldeep Yadav. Rohit then ended the 12th over by sweeping Kuldeep hard through deep backward square leg for four.
Varma sliced Mukesh Kumar over backward point for four, followed by eye-catchy sixes over deep mid-wicket and extra cover, giving Mumbai an ideal start in the 16th over. But Mukesh bounced back by having Varma slogging straight to deep mid-wicket and Suryakumar Yadav hitting a short ball straight to fine leg for a golden duck.
Delhi produced a big twist came in the 17th over when Rohit sliced off Mustafizur and Abhishek Porel dived to his right to take a brilliant one-handed catch. With 18 needed off nine balls, Green and David slogged Mustafizur for a six each over deep mid-wicket and long-on, as 15 runs came off the 19th over.
David was dropped by Mukesh in the final over and after Delhi reversed an on-field wide call, two runs were needed off the final ball. David made a desperate dive for the second run and despite Porel taking off the bails, Mumbai were able to break their winless run in IPL 2023.
Earlier, Delhi were in trouble at 98/5 in 12.3 overs, and Axar walked in to smack 54 off 25 balls, hitting four fours and five effortless sixes in what was his first IPL fifty. Warner began well but struggled to accelerate and played an anchor role to make an unconvincing 51 off 47 balls. Delhi were undone by a bad finish as their last five wickets fell for just seven runs, with two balls left unused.
Prithvi Shaw looked good in his flowy drives, but fell to Hrithik Shokeen after sweeping straight to square leg. Warner initially nailed his pulls and slogs while being severe on anything having width from the bowlers. From the other end, Manish Pandey was great in his on-drives while using his feet well against spinners, and had some luck in edges going for boundaries.
Post the first time-out, Pandey danced down the pitch to loft off Chawla, but holed out to long-off in the ninth over. Yash Dhull’s IPL debut lasted four balls as his flick off the hips off a slower ball from Riley Meredith was caught by running deep mid-wicket. Chawla’s googly then trapped Rovman Powell plumb lbw.
Warner got a life in the 12th over as Chawla couldn’t hold on to his catch at mid-off and couldn’t effect a run-out despite a mix-up between him and Lalit Yadav. Chawla made up for the shelled chance by luring Lalit through flight and uprooting his leg-stump with a slower googly. Warner then nailed a slog-sweep off Chawla for four, before bringing up his half-century in 43 balls.
From the other end, Axar showed his fine touch with the bat by carting Shokeen for back-to-back inside-out sixes, before striking Green through cover and down the ground for a brace of fours.
Axar then smacked consecutive sixes over long-on off Behrendorff, second of which Suryakumar dropped and was hit on the face, walking off the field immediately. He took on Meredith by hooking through short fine leg for four, followed by smacking a six straight down the ground on a no-ball to get his fifty in 22 balls.
But Mumbai bounced back in the 19th over as Behrendorff had Axar holing out to deep square leg, Warner giving a top-edge to short third man and Abishek Porel miscuing to mid-off, apart from Kuldeep Yadav being run-out by mid-on. Meredith castled Anrich Nortje in the final over to make it the first time a side batting first has been bowled out.
Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172 in 19.4 overs (Axar Patel 54, David Warner 51; Piyush Chawla 3/22, Jason Behrendorff 3/23) lost to Mumbai Indians 173/4 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 65, Tilak Varma 41; Mukesh Kumar 2/30, Mustafizur Rahman 1/38) by six wickets
–IANS
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