ROMARIO SHEPHERDS MI
All-rounder’s 10-ball 39 not out blitz helps Mumbai beat DC by 29 runs
MUMBAI: Romario Shepherd’s 10-ball 39 not out outmuscled Tristan Stubb’s courageous 71 off 25 balls as Mumbai Indians ended its three-match losing streak in the Indian Premier League with a 29–run win against Delhi Capitals here on Sunday.
Conceding as many as 51 runs in the last two overs proved catastrophic for Delhi Capitals, whose bowlers remained wayward and batters lacked the spunk in the initial overs to go after MI bowlers, even though Stubbs went ballistic to make 25-ball 71 not out.
The right-handed Stubbs smacked as many as seven sixes and three fours but his effort could only reduce the margin of defeat for Delhi, which lost a flurry of wickets towards the end to finish at 205 for eight in reply to Mumbai
Indians’ 234 for five. Once again poor quality of domestic talent in DC set-up proved to be its undoing.
Save Abishek Porel, none of the other young uncapped Indians have measured up.
While Mumbai Indians managed to open its account in the points table after three losses upfront, the win also helped it leapfrog both Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals to jump to the seventh spot while also improving its NRR to -0.704.
On its part, a fourth loss in five matches resulted in Delhi Capitals slipping down to the bottom of the table and it now also has the worst NRR of -1.370 among all teams.
Shepherd hurt Delhi Capitals the most, clobbering four sixes and three fours off Anrich Nortje’s 20th over to collect 32 runs and returned with the ball to get the prized scalp of David Warner (10).
Later in the game, Shepherd was on the receiving end too, ending as the costliest of all bowlers by giving away 54 runs among all those who finished their four-over spells for Mumbai.
Shepherd’s onslaught featuring four sixes and three fours topped a collective effort which Mumbai Indians came up with in the first half of the game to register its highest-ever score at its home ground.
When DC started its chase, Prithvi Shaw came up with a 40-ball 66 with three sixes and eight fours but the asking rate kept soaring beyond its reach.
The No 3 Porel hit a few attractive strokes but failed to make the most of a lifeline he got while batting on 30. The left-hander eventually perished for a 31-ball 41 with five fours, and following him back in the hut soon was Delhi captain Rishabh Pant (1).
Delhi’s lower order too cut a sorry figure with Axar Patel (8), Lalit Yadav (3), debutant Kumar Kushagra (0) and Jhye Richardson (2) falling in quick succession giving Gerald Coetzee a four wicket haul.
BRIEF SCORES: Mumbai Indians 234/5 in 20 overs (R Sharma 49, I Kishan 42, T David 45*, R Shepherd 39*) bt Delhi Capitals 205/8 in 20 overs (T Stubbs 71*, P Shaw 66, A Porel 41, G Coetzee 4/34)