Delhi Daredevils produced a fine all-round show to beat defending champions Mumbai Indians by 10 runs and extend their winning run in the ninth Indian Premier League on Saturday. It must here be mentioned that this is the first time since 2012 that Delhi has managed to win three successive games.
Young Sanju Samson (60) struck a fine half-century while JP Duminy made a brisk unbeaten 49 to help Daredevils post 164 for five after being asked to bat at the Feroz Shah Kotla ground.
Defending the total, Daredevils dished out a disciplined bowling and fielding display to restrict Mumbai Indians to 154 for seven and register their third win on the trot.
Veteran Amit Mishra proved why he is regarded as the best leg-spinner of the country at present by returning with figures of 4-0-24-2, which included the important wickets of Ambati Rayudu and Jos Buttler.
Chasing 165, Mumbai lost Parthiv Patel early but skipper Rohit Sharma (64 off 47 balls) and Ambati Rayudu (25 off 23) added 53 runs for the second wicket to steady the innings.
While Rayudu played an aggressive knock, Rohit’s was an uncharacteristic innings as he preferred to play the second fiddle. Rayudu cracked four boundaries before he was cleaned up by a flighted googly from Mishra in the ninth over.
After Rayudu’s fall, Krunal Pandya came to bat and the youngster used his long handle to great effect to make a quickfire 36 off just 17 balls before he was caught short off the crease at the non-strikers end by a direct hit from Daredevils skipper Zaheer Khan off his own bowling.
With Mumbai Indians needing 47 off the last four overs for a win, all hopes of the visitors were on the shoulders of their skipper Rohit and Kieron Pollard.
But it was not to be Mumbai’s day as Pollard departed in the next ball when he miscued a shot only to give a simple catch to Chris Morris at sweeper cover.
Needing 21 off the last over, Rohit brought down the equation with a six off the second ball of Morris but he fell victim of an unnecessary mix up with Hardik Pandya in the very next ball while going for a double.
Thereafter, victory was a mere formality for Delhi and they wrapped up the match in style without any further fuss.
Earlier, For Delhi, Samson top-scored with 60 off 48 balls during which he struck four boundaries and two sixes, Duminy’s runs came off just 31 balls with the help of three fours and two hits over the fence.
For Mumbai Indians McClenaghan (2/31) picked up two wickets, while Hardik Pandya (1/7) and Harbhajan Singh (1/24) accounted for one wicket each.
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