Delhi Daredevils 195 for 3 (Roy 91*, Pant 47, Krunal Pandya 2-21) beat Mumbai Indians 194 for 7 (Suryakumar Yadav 53, Lewis 48, Christian 2-35) by seven wickets
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
On paper, this was a clash between one of the tournament’s powerhouses and an unfancied team. In reality, it was a scrap between two teams looking to get a move on, having suffered defeat in each of their first two games. By the end of it, all of Mumbai’s batting might could not bail them out, as a 389-run slugfest ended with Daredevils sealing a 195-run chase off the last ball.
It was yet another chapter in Mumbai’s dubious history of being slow starters. But regardless of their general tendency to recover well from such starts, three defeats in three games now leave Mumbai’s players with next to no allowances for further slip-ups.
That they find themselves in this position was as much to their own undoing as the belligerence of Daredevils batsmen. Having launched a stunning onslaught that gave them 84 runs in the Powerplay, Mumbai lost five wickets for 21 runs to end up with 194 that was below-par on a belter of a Wankhade pitch.
Once the choke had been applied, Daredevils never looked behind. Jason Roy, on debut for the franchise, pillaged an unbeaten 91, matched stroke for stroke by Rishabh Pant (47 off 25), to clinch a seven-wicket win.
Crash! Bang! Wallop!
Having lost the toss, Rohit Sharma was hardly fussed about being made to bat, and you could almost instantly see why. This was everything a batsman could have asked for: placid surface, quick outfield, and short boundaries. To supplement that, Mumbai ran into a Delhi team in quite the giving mood. Daredevils’ bowlers were so inept that you probably faulted Mumbai for being more severe.
Mumbai’s openers were the perfect match for each other. Where Suryakumar Yadav was slick and innovative – a very late uppercut off Boult and a late glide to a wide yorker from Mohammed Shami standing out – Evin Lewis used brute force to murder Daredevils’ horrific lengths. Shahbaz Nadeem, the left-arm spinner, was horribly astray and too afraid to flight it up, while Shami and Daniel Christian walked in to hostile welcomes as well. By the end of the Powerplay, where the cheapest over cost 10 runs, Mumbai had racked up – and moved well past – their fastest IPL fifty, as well as their best Powerplay score.
Simmer down and bugger up
Since 2015, Lewis has had a middle-overs strike-rate of 174.1 in T20s – the best among all players to have faced 250-plus balls. On Saturday, Lewis’ middle-overs stay turned out to be antithetical, both in the context of his record and the start he had had. Lewis faced 12 balls after the Powerplay, and managed just 11 runs.
It began with the introduction of the legspinner Rahul Tewatia, who began with a three-run seventh over. In his next, he foxed Lewis by floating up a googly and drawing the error from the batsman as he miscued a hoick to mid-off.
It marked the beginning of a brief lull, exacerbated by the dismissal of Suryakumar Yadav, shortly after he had notched up his second fifty in 45 IPL innings. Ishan Kishan killed it by recovering from a slow start to slam 44 off 23 balls. Mumbai looked very much on course for 200. And then, they imploded. Rohit showed a peculiar lack of urgency, Kieron Pollard was bowled for a golden duck, and even the Pandya brothers – Krunal and Hardik – were kept quiet. Having steamrolled to 100 halfway through the ninth over, 36 runs off the last five overs was damning.
More to follow
Source: ESPN Crickinfo