The threat of a Super Over, followed by a last ball finish, was once again how yet another IPL 2023 match ended, as Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by 6 wickets on Tuesday to finally collect their first points of the season.
With the defeat, their fourth this season, Delhi Capitals now continue to occupy the bottom spot in the IPL standings.
Mumbai's skipper Rohit Sharma led the way with a 45-ball 65, his first half-century in the IPL after 25 innings, as the five-time champions chased down the 173 scored by Delhi.
Compared to Delhi's 29/0, Mumbai had a blazing start by reaching 42/0 in 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 Rahman. Anrich 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 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 Anrich 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, Cameron Green and Tim 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 Capitals opener David Warner scored his half century off 43 deliveries while number seven bat Axar Patel reached the same milestone off 22 balls as the team posted 172 against Mumbai Indians.
The two players also stitched together the most productive partnership of the innings, adding 67 runs for the sixth wicket before Axar got out on 54 and Warner on 51. The score was 165/5 when Axar scored his half century but following his fifty, Delhi simply imploded with five wickets falling in the next 10 deliveries.
Delhi couldn't even complete their quote of 20 overs, getting bowled out on 172.
Pushed into batting first, Delhi were off to a decent start by racing to 29/0 in the first three overs. Shaw got off the mark by presenting the full face of the bat to punch-drive down the ground off Behrendorff. He would time two more flowy drives off Arshad Khan and Hrithik Shokeen, but Shaw would fall to the latter 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. In the next 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.
More trouble followed Delhi as Chawla's googly trapped Rovman Powell plumb lbw in the 11th over. After paddle-sweeping off Green in the 12th over, Warner got a life 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 Yadav 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.
(With inputs from IANS)
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