Mumbai crush Delhi to seal a berth in playoffs
house-full Kotla had already started emptying.
Batsmen continued to come and go, Harbhajan (3/22) taking out Pat Cummins after Karn Sharma (3/11) had snared Marlon Samuels and it was left to the tail to push the total past the 50 mark, but not very much further.
Earlier, Lendl Simmons (66) and fellow-Trinidadian Kieron Pollard put the Delhi bowling to the sword as the league leaders raced to 212/3 after being asked to bat first.
Mumbai made a sedate start in which their first boundary came only off the 18th ball faced. The shower of sixes and fours that followed however, more than made up for the beginning, and between them the two West Indians provided a substantial 129 runs to the team total.
Simmons averages in the high forties in the IPL, and Saturday was no different. Jaydev Unadkat took a last over hat-trick and finished with the figures of 4-1-30-5 while Ben Stokes stood tall in all three departments of the game as the giants from Pune became the first team to conquer the Orange Army’s fortress at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here on Saturday. With the hosts needing 13 off the last over Jaydev Unadkat delivered a three-wicket maiden dismissing Bipul Sharma, Rashid Khan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to take his team to the second position on the points table replacing Kolkata Knight Riders. Chasing a modest 148, Sunrisers made a decent start as Shikhar Dhawan led the charge by smashing Unadkat for two boundaries in the first over and a six in the third before being bowled out by Stokes in the fifth over off a delivery that stayed a tad low. Kane Williamson too departed in the same over with just four runs against his name. However, the in-form David Warner and Yuvraj Singh stood firm and stitched a brilliant 54-run partnership for the third wicket before captain Warner was Mumbai Indians: L. Simmons c Samuels b Anderson 66, P. Patel st Pant b Mishra 25, K. Pollard (not out) 63, R. Sharma c Mishra b Rabada 10, H. Pandya (not out) 29. Extras (lb 9, w 10) 19. Total (for 3 wickets in 20 overs) 212. FoW: 1-79, 2-116, 3-153. Bowling: Zaheer 4-0-29-0, Rabada 4-0-33-1, Cummins 4-059-0, Mishra 4-0-37-1, Shami 2-016-0, Anderson 2-0-29-1. Delhi Daredevils innings: S. Samson c Simmons b McClenaghan 0, K. Nair c R. Sharma b Harbhajan Singh 21, S. Iyer c Harbhajan Singh b Malinga 3, R. Pant c Simmons b Bumrah 0, C. Anderson c K. Sharma b Malinga 10, M. Samuels c R. Sharma b K. Sharma 1, P. Cummins c Patel b Harbhajan Singh 10, K. Rabada c R. Sharma b K. Sharma 0, A. Mishra not out 9, M. Shami c Pollard b H. Singh 7, Z. Khan c Rana b K. Sharma 2. Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1) 3. Total (all out, 13.4 overs) 66. Fow: 0-1, 6-2, 20-3, 31-4, 35-5, 40-6, 46-7, 48-8, 57-9, 66-10. Bowling: M. McClenaghan 2-0-181, S. Malinga 2-0-5-2, J. Bumrah 10-6-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-22-3, K. Sharma 3.4-0-11-3, H. Pandaya 1-0-2-0. removed by the million dollar Englishman. The home captain made 40 from 34 deliveries.
Post Warner’s dismissal, Yuvraj kept the scoreboard ticking even as he failed to get much support from the batsmen at the other end. It was Unadkat who turned out to be the game changer for Pune as he struck in the 18th over to get rid of the dangerous Yuvraj, who carved out a brilliant 47 before being caught by Rahul Tripathi at deep point.
Earlier, after inviting the visitors to bat, the hosts tightened the screws on Smith and Co. who failed to fetch boundaries till the fifth over which eventually resulted in wickets falling at regular intervals.
It was after 32 balls that Ajinkya Rahane dispatched a maximum off Siddarth Kaul over long-on.
After Ajinkya Rahane’s dismissal, Stokes joined the party and dealt only in sixes as he dispatched two back-to-back big hits off Bipul Sharma in the 11th over followed by another six in the 13th sent down by the same bowler. DECCAN CHRONICLE Teams MI RPS KKR SRH KXIP DD GL RCB P 11 12 11 12 10 11 11 12 W 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 L 2 4 4 5 5 7 8 9 SUNDAY | 7 MAY 2017 | HYDERABAD N/R 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 Net RR +1.058 -0.060 +0.725 +0.541 +0.292 -0.660 -0.433 -1.387 Pts 18 16 14 13 10 8 6 5