Senior Mumbai Indians’ (MI) pros Jasprit Bumrah and Trent Boult put on a show with the ball on Saturday afternoon in Dubai against the Delhi Capitals (DC) as they won comprehensively. Six wickets between the duo broke the backbone of Delhi’s batting order, setting up a nine-wicket win on 31 October, and assuring that Mumbai would not finish outside the top two.
Delhi, who’s top scorer was captain Shreyas Iyer (25), could only manage 110/9, courtesy some lower order resistance. Young Ishan Kishan, however, hardly put a foot wrong during his knock of 72* and took Mumbai home at a canter.
Boult, the most dangerous bowler in the powerplay in IPL 2020, along with Bumrah took charge in phases during Delhi’s batting to back up Kieron Pollard’s decision of fielding first.
In need of a win to assure themselves of a playoff berth, Iyer and Delhi had the worst possible start.
Boult struck in the very first over to account for Shikhar Dhawan (0) and soon after was gifted another scalp as Prithvi Shaw’s (10) stay ended with a rash shot.
Iyer with Rishabh Pant (21) in tow put on 35 runs for the third wicket but failed to get a move on against Mumbai’s spinners. Chahar’s consistent probing eventually got him Iyer’s wicket but it was all down to the lightning fast hands of de Kock – Iyer’s right boot was centimeters off the ground as the South African whipped off the bails to leave Delhi reeling.
Sensing the chase to further tighten the screws, Kieron Pollard turned to Jasprit Bumrah, who responded immediately with the wicket of Marcus Stoinis. The pace ace wasn’t done yet and trapped India teammate Rishabh Pant LBW before beating the bat of Harshal Patel a couple of times, too.
In his next over, Bumrah picked up his third wicket of the game as Patel, too, was given an LBW for 5. After 14 overs, Delhi, who failed to recover from the early blows, were 73/6, with more than a few frowning faces in the dugout.
Mumbai, perfect in the field after Pollard won the toss however, were faced with a bit of resistance from Shimron Hetmyer (11), R Ashwin (12) and Kagiso Rabada (12) in the final overs. But a brilliant catch from Krunal Pandya dismissed Ashwin before Bumrah rounded off the innings with a fine final over, running out Rabada off the last delivery.
After the break, de Kock and Ishan Kishan made batting look extremely easy, unlike earlier, and were on course for a ten-wicket win. Scoring at good pace against the likes of Rabada, Ashwin and Nortje, Mumbai were hoping to finish the chase within 15 overs, as that would dent Delhi’s chances of a top for berth further due the NRR.
The two left handers put on 68 for the opening stand before de Kock (26) played one on to his stumps from Anrich Nortje.
In walked the much talked about Suryakumar Yadav and ramped Nortje over the keeper for a boundary to get going before Kishan put the seal with his third six of the evening. Kishan’s unbeaten 72 off 47 deliveries was peppered with eight boundaries too.
This was Delhi’s fourth consecutive defeat pushing them down to third and what did not help is the fact that Mumbai completed the chase within 15 overs. Delhi now have a NRR that is worse off than the fourth placed Kings XI Punjab.
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