Holders Mumbai Indians crash out of IPL
Daredevils play spoilers with 11-run victory in front of their home fans
Delhi Daredevils rode on a strong bowling display to notch up an 11-run victory and eliminate Mumbai Indians from the race for the Indian Premier League play-offs in New Delhi yesterday.
Chasing a target of 175 in what was a must-win encounter for them, Mumbai were bundled out for 163 runs in 19.3 overs.
Mumbai thus completed the league phase with 12 points from their 14 matches. With Rajasthan Royals on 14 points and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders already qualified, defending champions Mumbai saw their title defence come to an end. But it was by no means an easy victory. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Mumbai kept up a healthy scoring rate and kept the packed stadium on the edge of their seats till the very end.
Strong bowling display
Leggie Amit Mishra was the most successful among the Delhi bowlers with figures of 3/19 in his four overs. Sandeep Lamichhane claimed 3/36 while Harshal Patel had figures of 3/28.
Mumbai suffered their first jolt in the opening over when Suryakumar Yadav (12) holed out to long-on off the bowling of Sandeep Lamichhane.
Mishra struck in the seventh over when Vijay Shankar pulled off an excellent catch at the longon boundary of Ishan Kishan (5). Mishra gave a jolt again in his next over, getting rid of Mumbai opener Evin Lewis, who was just two runs short of his half-century, which included four sixes.
Lamichhane then got rid of Kieron Pollard (7) and Krunal Pandya (4) in the next over to leave Mumbai reeling at 78/5 in the 10th over. Skipper Rohit Sharma (13) and Hardik Pandya added 34 runs between them before the former fell to a brilliant piece of fielding by Glen Maxwell. Hardik kept the score ticking over before falling for 27 while attempting to hoist Mishra. Ben Cutting came up with some lower-order heroics with 37 runs off 20 balls. But once he fell in the second ball of the final over, it was as good as over for the visitors.
Earlier, Delhi rode a halfcentury from Rishabh Pant and some death over heroics by Vijay Shankar to post 174/4 in their 20 overs. Rishabh was the highest scorer for the hosts with 64 runs off 44 balls including four boundaries and four sixes.
Kolkata Knight Riders became the third team to make the Indian Premier League playoffs on a day when Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore bowed out of the Twenty20 tournament.
Australia’s Chris Lynn helped Kolkata outplay tabletoppers Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets on Saturday to finish the league stage with eight wins in 14 games.
Lynn’s 43-ball 55 helped two-time champions Kolkata chase down their 173-run target in 19.4 overs at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
“At the end of the day, we strive for a playoff spot,” skipper Dinesh Karthik said after the win.
“It’s good to see we are pulling back games. Touch wood, I’d like to think we’re peaking at the right time. Feels good to be here [in the top four].”
Shubman Gill, KKR’s young turk, said some brilliant death bowling led by Prasidh Krishna turned the match in their favour. “I think the way we bowled at the death overs — that was the turning point of the match. Prasidh (4-0-304) bowled really well. All the bowlers bowled really well at the death, Gill said at the postmatch press conference.
KKR will now play their eliminator at home ground at the Eden Gardens on May 23 and Gill said it will work in their advantage.
“It’s always an advantage to play at home. It’s beneficial to play match at home. The crowd is very supportive. We will also have a better idea of the wicket
Australia’s Chris Lynn helped Kolkata outplay table-toppers Sunrisers Hyderabad by five wickets on Saturday.
compared to other teams,” he said.
Meanwhile, Sunrisers wicketkeeper batsman Shreevats Goswami, who scored 35 runs off 26 balls, said the loss won’t hurt his team’s momentum in the qualifier. “I think momentum does not come in when any team goes for qualifier. Everybody will come well prepared. We have lost three games and we will be more aware of the situation. I think we will come back stronger and we will assess our weaknesses and strengths ahead of the qualifiers,” he said.