Bowlers and Rohit win Mumbai, Delhi’s fourth consecutive defeat

After the fine bowling of Piyush Chawla and Jason Behrendorff, captain Rohit Sharma’s half-century helped Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by six wickets here on Tuesday, which is the fourth defeat of the hosts in four matches. Chasing Delhi’s target of 173, Mumbai Indians rode on opener Rohit’s (65 off 45 balls, six fours, four sixes) half-century apart from his first-wicket stand of 71 with Ishan Kishan (31) and Lalit Yadav (41). 29 runs in the ball, one four, four sixes) in the second wicket partnership of 68 runs, scoring 173 runs for four wickets in the last ball, registered the first win of the current tournament in three matches.

Mumbai had completed their century by losing just one wicket in the 12th over but the Delhi bowlers made the match exciting by bowling effectively in the last over. Delhi’s team scored 172 in 19.4 overs despite Axar Patel’s 25-ball 54 with five sixes and four fours and his sixth wicket partnership of 67 with captain David Warner (51 off 47 balls, six fours). Got confined to the run. Apart from these two, no Delhi batsman could even touch the figure of 30 runs. For Mumbai, veteran leg-spinner Chawla bowled brilliantly for 22 runs while Behrendorff took three wickets each for 23 runs.

Riley Meredith (2/34) also took two wickets. Chasing the target, Mumbai got off to a stormy start by captain Rohit and Ishan (31). Both scored 68 runs in the power play without losing a wicket. Both the batsmen showed aggressive attitude from the beginning. Rohit hit Mukesh Kumar (2/30) for two fours and a six in the very first over while Ishan hit Mustafizur Rahman (1/38) for three consecutive fours in the next over.

Rohit also hit fours and sixes on consecutive balls of Enrich Norkia. Ishan then got run out due to a misunderstanding with Rohit. Rohit hit a six over Norkia and then completed his half-century in just 29 balls with a single off Kuldeep. Meanwhile, Lalit also hit Kuldeep for two sixes, which brought up Mumbai’s hundred in the 12th over. Mumbai needed 50 runs to win in the last five overs. In the 16th over, Lalit hit Mukesh for a four and two sixes in consecutive balls but was caught by Manish Pandey in the same over. Suryakumar Yadav (00) also caught Kuldeep at deep fine leg on the next ball, due to which the team’s score became 139 runs for three wickets. Wicketkeeper Abhishek Porel then gave a big blow to Mumbai by taking Rohit’s brilliant catch off Mustafizur’s ball.

Mumbai lost three wickets in seven balls, reducing their score from 139 for one to 143 for four. Mumbai needed 26 runs in the last three overs. Just six runs were scored in Norkia’s next over. Cameron Green (17 not out) and Tim David (13 not out) hit Mustafizur for sixes to give Mumbai the upper hand. Mumbai needed only five runs in the last over and David took the final ball of Norkia for two runs to win the team. Earlier, Rohit won the toss and decided to bowl first. Prithvi Shaw (15) fails again. He opened the account with a four off Behrendorff and then welcomed Hrithik Shokin (1/43) with a four but was caught by Cameron Green at backward square leg while trying to sweep the off-spinner.

In-form opener Warner hit Green while Manish Pandey hit Meredith and Hrithik for two fours each. Delhi scored 51 runs for one wicket in the power play. Warner, once again contrary to his reputation, batted slowly. Pandey (26 off 18 balls) did not last long and was caught by Behrendorff at the long-off boundary in an attempt to play a big shot on Chawla. Debutant Yash Dhull (02) was also caught by Meredith off Nihal Wadhera in the next over, while Chawla trapped Rovman Powell (04) lbw to reduce Delhi’s score from 76 for one to 86 for four.

Warner was also lucky in the next over when he was dropped by Chawla at mid-off off Green on a personal score of 37, but the leg-spinner bowled Lalit Yadav (02) in the next over. Warner completed the team’s century in the 13th over with a four on Chawla. In the 15th over, Akshar hit Hrithik over extra cover for the first six of the innings and then took the next ball across the boundary as well. Warner completed his third half-century in four matches in 43 balls with one run off Green. Akshar hit Behrendorff for two consecutive sixes in the next over. However, he got lucky on the second six when Suryakumar Yadav dropped his catch at long-on.

Akshar completed his first half-century of IPL in just 23 balls with fours and sixes off consecutive balls of Meredith. However, he was caught by Arshad Khan off Behrendorff in the next over. Warner also caught Meredith by waving Behrendorff’s ball in the air after one ball. Kuldeep Yadav (00) was also run out in the same over while Abhishek Porel (01) also returned to the pavilion as the team lost four wickets in the over. Meredith ended Delhi’s innings by bowling Enrich Norkia (05).