After Ishan Kishan fought off a painful toe to hammer an unbeaten 81, Mumbai Indians’ bowlers seemed to have done enough. But, Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel had very different plans on Sunday evening, putting on a big seventh wicket stand, leaving Mumbai stunned as Delhi won by 4 wickets.
Axar Patel (38*) and Lalit Yadav (48*) put on a stand of 75 runs from 30 deliveries, and finishing the chase with 10 deliveries to go.
Put into bat, Mumbai Indians' openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan started with 10 runs in the very first over of Shardul Thakur. Sharma was more aggressive in his approach than Kishan, trying to smash everything over the fence. Both batters were scoring runs freely as none of the Delhi Capitals' bowlers including star spinner Axar Patel were effective enough to curtail the racing run rate. Patel was most expensive as he gave away 26 runs in just three overs.
After seeing their main bowlers' ineffectiveness, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant brought Kuldeep Yadav into the attack in the 8th over. The 27-year-old left-arm spinner responded immediately with the wicket of Sharma. Sharma made 41 off 32 with the help of two sixes and four fours. Sharma and Kishan made a 67 runs partnership in only 8.2 overs.
In his next over, Yadav who was part of the Indian team in the Sri Lanka series, gave another jolt to Mumbai, taking Anmolpreet Singh's wicket.
Anmolpreet did not read Kuldeep well and tried to slice it over the covers but miscued it towards long-off, where Lalit Yadav ran in from the deep to take a simple catch.
After that the debutant 19-year-old, Tilak Verma walked in but he too did not stay long before getting out to Khaleel Ahmad for 22 runs in 15 balls.
After losing three wickets in quick succession, the scoring rate of Mumbai Indians slumped, but Kishan at the other end was making runs with odd boundaries.
When Mumbai was set to regain the momentum, Kuldeep once again provided a breakthrough, taking Kieron Pollard's wicket.
A shorter one from Kuldeep caught Pollard off guard and the West Indies batter tried to pull it over the mid-wicket where Tim Seifert dived to his right to take a good overhead catch to end Pollard's stay. It was Kuldeep Yadav's third wicket in the match.
The fall of regular wickets did not deter Kishan at the other end as he continued to make runs, hitting the odd boundaries. He returned unbeaten 81 as Mumbai managed to post a competitive total of 177/5 in 20 overs.
In response, Delhi, with Prithvi Shaw and Tim Seifert, one of two overseas players available for them, started off at good clip, with both batters happy to throw the bat in search of quick runs. Seifert smashed a quickfire 21 off 14 before Murugan Ashwin went through his defences. A couple of deliveries later, Ashwin sent back Mandeep Singh for a duck, putting the Delhi batting under pressure.
Things then went from bad to worse as the talismanic Pant also departed quickly, caught by Tim David off Tymal Mills for 1 after playing 2 deliveries. Shaw, meanwhile, was chipping away at the target, at a fair clip.
Shaw and Lalit Yadav put on a 40-run stand after that before Mumbai struck again, and this time it was Basil Thampi with some telling blows. The first to depart was Shaw for 38, who miscued a hoick and Ishan Kishan, who was back on the field after an injury scare, completed a good catch. A couple of deliveries later Rovman Powell was gone for 0, trying to clear the square leg boundary, giving Thampi his second wicket. Delhi had half their batting back in the hut with half their innings to go.
Shardul Thakur added 22 to the cause of 11 deliveries, before Thampi had him caught by Rohit at cover. Shardul and Lalit Yadav put on a 32-run stand before the wicket fell, giving the Mumbai side some more of the momentum.
But while the wickets kept falling, Delhi were still chipping away with regular boundaries, bringing the equation to 56 needed off the last 5 overs. Axar welcomed Bumrah, who wasn’t having the best day, back into the attack with a six over long-on, with Lalit Yadav adding a boundary to it, as Delhi made it a 15-run over.
That gave Axar quite a bit of confidence, and along with Lalit, they led the counter-attack, taking Thampi for 13 runs after that and then giving Daniel Sams quite the tonking. The batters hit Sams for 3 sixes and a boundary in a 24-run over, completely changing the complexion of the game in a matter of minutes.
Off Bumrah’s next over, Axar flicked him away to fine leg for a boundary, to put the finishing touches on a remarkable win.
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