It started with a four and ended with a six: the Mumbai Indians’ entries in 2020 Indian Premier League Qualifier 1 against Delhi Capitals were marked with limits, and that was the story of his day as a half century of Suryakumar Yadav ( 51 of 38) and Ishan Kishan (55 not out of 30), and a tremendous 37 of 14 balls not out of Hardik Pandya drove them to 200 for 5. Delhi stuttered in response, going from a horrendous 0 for 3 to 20 for 4 and finally 143 of 8, losing by 57 runs. With this victory, Mumbai reserved its place in the 2020 IPL final on November 10.
Mumbai innings started with a limit, a direct drive down the floor from Quinton de Kock, and ended with a long and long six over from Kishan, and between the two balls there were many more like Kagiso Rabada (0/42 of 4 overs ), Anrich Nortje (1/50) and Daniel Sams (0/44) failed in a crucial clash.
R Ashwin, however, secured key land from Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard, both in search of ducks, and from Kock (41 of 25). It was one of the positives for Delhi with its 3/29 figures from four overs in what would otherwise be a disappointing outing.
De Kock attacked the Delhi bowling after losing his first teammate Rohit in the second over.
He hit three limits in the first over of the match, two of them directly on the ground, thrown by Sams to set the tone for innings.
No respect was shown even for the tournament’s most wickered player until this match, Rabada, who was pulled over a limit even when he threw a scorching gorilla, as Mumbai finished the Powerplay at 63-1.
Ashwin struck just after the Powerplay, causing De Kock to make a hole for Delhi captain Shreyas Iyer, as Delhi managed to pull back in the middle of the stage, keeping Mumbai at 93-2.
Suryakumar started up at the other end and drew his fifty with just 36 balls. However, he was fired caught in the deep square leg off Nortje shortly thereafter, even as Delhi went up 100 in 12th.
Pollard’s duck, caught in the long and long in front of Ashwin, gave Delhi hope of keeping Mumbai in check, but Hardik exploded in the death overs, hitting Rabada for six straight in the 19th and then Nortje for two more in the last over.
Mumbai racked up 55 runs in the final three overs to touch 200 on the last ball of innings.
Delhi got off to a disastrous start when its top three landed ducks and returned to the hut within the first three overs of the chase.
Trent Boult caught Prithvi Shaw (0) behind in the first over before catching Ajinkya Rahane (0) lbw with a scorching in-swinger in the same over.
Bumrah dropped Shikhar Dhawan (0) with a yorker to leave Delhi reeling at 0-for-3 before he came back in the fourth to catch Iyer (12) from cover.
When Rishabh Pant (3) poked Suryakumar in a wide and long off Krunal Pandya, it looked like the game would be over soon.
However, Marcus Stoinis (65 of 46) made Axar Patel (42 of 33) try to bring some kind of parity in the contest to Delhi. They added 71 runs for the sixth wicket to take Delhi to 112-for-5 in 15 overs, necessitating an unlikely but not impossible 89 runs from the final five overs.
Bumrah pitched Stoinis on the first ball of 16 to nip any chance of a Delhi comeback in the bud.
Promoted
Bumrah finished 4 of 14 in four overs, while Boult was 2 of 9 in two.
Delhi will now play the winner of Friday’s Eliminator between SunRisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore in Qualifier 2 in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
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