VIDEO: Mumbai emerge winners in clash of titans, go on top with victory over Delhi
- 11 Oct 2020
Mohammad Abdullah, Staff Reporter
Quinton De Kock smacked a blitzkrieg fifty as Mumbai Indians emerged winners in the clash of titans with a five-wicket victory in their Indian Premier League match on Sunday.
After restricting Delhi to 162/4, Mumbai went over the line for the loss of five wickets with two ball remaining.
Delhi did make some inroads through their star-studded bowling attack, which features the likes of South Africa pace duo of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje; India’s top spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel, but could not stop Mumbai from registering their fifth win of the season.
Mumbai got off to a decent start as Rohit Sharma and De Kock added 31 runs in five overs to set the tone for a successful chase. Patel gave Delhi their first breakthrough by getting the Mumbai captain caught by Rabada.
De Kock and Suryakumar Yadav shared a 44-run partnership in just five overs to take the score to 77-2. De Kock hit four boundaries and three over the fence in his 36-ball 53 before holing out to Shaw off Ashwin. Mumbai would have been 77-3. Yadav got a reprieve when he was dropped by Ashwin off his own bowling when batting on 17. He went on to score 53.
Ishan Kishan, who had played a wonderful innings of 99 runs against RCB, and took the match into the Super Over along with Kieron Pollard as the duo scored a whopping 89 off last four overs, smashed a quick-fire 15-ball 28.
After the departure of De Kock, Kishan and Yadav shared a 53-run partnership for the fourth wicket to take the score to 129/2.
Rabada sent Yadav back to the pavilion to make it 1303 in 15 overs. Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis uprooted the stumps of Hardik Pandya, reducing Mumbai to 130/4.
After taking two wickets in quick succession, Delhi began to fancy their chances of pulling yet another improbable win from the jaws of defeat as Mumbai still needed 33 runs off 28 balls. Rabada had Kishan caught by Patel to give Mumbai a scare but it was too late as Pollard played a watchful innings to see his team through.
Earlier, Dhawan finally smashed the fifty of the season to herald his return to the form. Delhi got off to a stuttering start as they lost the wicket of the in-form opener Prithvi Shaw with just four runs on the board.
Shaw was caught by Krunal off New Zealand’s pacer Trent Boult. Ajinkya Rahane was the second man to go after scoring 15 runs. He was trapped by Krunal in the fifth over. Shreyas Iyer and Dhawan took the responsibility of taking their team to safety. The duo began to rebuild the innings, playing cautiously.
They shared an 85-run stand for the third wicket to take the score to 108-2. Krunal struck again to get rid of Iyer and had the Delhi captain caught by Boult to make it 109-3. Dhawan was holding firm on the other end. He smashed six fours and one six in his 52-ball 69 as Delhi piled up 162/4.
With the victory, Mumbai have gone on top of the standings with 10 points from their seven games to be followed by Delhi in second with the same number of points.
