New Delhi: Rahul Chahar (4/19) did the star turn as the leg-spinner wrecked havoc in the Delhi Capitals (DC) top order to help Mumbai Indians (MI) cruise to a comfortable 40 runs here at the Feroz Shah Kotla Thursday.
From a well-placed 48/0 in six overs, Chahar picked up the priced wickets of openers Prithvi Shaw (20), Shikhar Dhawan (35) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (three) to leave Delhi reeling 63/4 10.2 overs.
Delhi never recovered from that setback as they kept on losing wickets at regular intervals to eventually finish at 128/9.
Earlier, Pandya brothers – Hardik and Krunal – led Mumbai Indians’ (MI) recovery with a 54-run stand, powering the visitors to a challenging 168/5 against.
Hardik (32, 15b) and Krunal (37 n o, 26b) provided a much needed late onslaught by hammering 51 runs off the last 18 balls to put Mumbai in a strong position. This was after Delhi spinners Amit Mishra (1/18) and Axar Patel (1/17) tightened the screws on MI with a tidy effort.
With teams batting second winning all three previous games at the Kotla, Rohit Sharma’s decision to bat first surprised even opposition skipper Shreyas Iyer.
Mumbai made a measured start with Rohit’s (30) classy cover drive being the only boundary in the first three overs which yielded just 16 runs. Runs started flowing after as Quinton de Kock (35) collected a four and six over deep square leg and by the first powerplay, Mumbai reached a promising 57/0.
However, the run flow suffered soon after DC introduced Mishra and Patel bowling a tight line and length. With Mumbai struggling to 117/4 in 17 overs, a late assault was very much needed to put up a fighting total. And that was provided by the Pandya brothers, with both going after Keemo Paul (0/37) in the 18th over that leaked 17 runs.
Brief score: Mumbai Indians 168/5 (Krunal Pandya 37 n o, Hardik Pandya 32; Kagiso Rabada 2/38) beat Delhi Capitals 128/9 (Shikhar Dhawan 35; Rahul Chahar 3/19) by 40 runs.
