Fraser-McGurk’s blistering knock sets up DC’s triumph over MI
The Australian’s 27-ball 84, along with handy contributions from Hope (41 o„ 17 balls) and Stubbs’ unbeaten 48, powers the home side to 257 for four; the Mumbai out‰t’s chase, led by a 32-ball 63 by Tilak, falls 10 runs short
The trend of gargantuan totals – in Indian Premier League in general and at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in particular – continued. So did that of Delhi Capitals winning at home.
Riding on Jake FraserMcGurk’s pyrotechnics up front and Tristan Stubbs’ strong nish, DC posted 257 for four against Mumbai Indians. Despite the MI power-hitters clearing boundaries frequently, the Capitals pace troika of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Rasikh Salam Dar picked wickets at regular intervals to control the game.
As a result, despite the visiting team nishing just 10 runs behind the total, the game never slipped out of DC’s grasp.
With Prithvi Shaw failing a tness test just before the toss, Fraser-McGurk found a new opening partner in Abishek Porel.
The Australian pounced on the MI bowling to amass 89 o the ve overs, 78 of which came o his willow. While he cleared the fence at will, his boundary-hitting ability was on full display.
That 80 o his 84 runs came o boundaries underlined his dominance. The best of his 17 boundary hits was his swing over long-on o a slower one to welcome Jasprit Bumrah into the attack.
With Bumrah being unable to strike up front, a toothless MI attack struggled to pull DC back in the middle overs. Stubbs then took on Luke Wood and Nuwan Thushara – the two IPL rookies – to help the Capitals cross the 250-run mark.
The fancied MI top-order had no option to up the ante from ball one.
Once DC dismissed the top three in the PowerPlay, MI was always playing catch-up. Khaleel struck twice to get the big sh Rohit Sharma (top-edged to mid-o ) and Suryakumar Yadav ( jabbed to covers) while Mukesh’s change of pace forced an error out of Ishan Kishan.
Captain Hardik, Tilak
Varma and Tim David then played robust innings but they had too much to catch up after the initial damage.
Rasikh’s variation in pace also worked wonderfully for the Capitals to close the game out.