Delhi Capitals made it two home victories in a row after recording a 10-run triumph over Mumbai Indians in the afternoon game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Saturday.
This was their fifth win out of 10 outings, and it elevated the Capitals to the fifth spot in the IPL points tally while five-time champions MI’s chances of reaching the play-offs further dented after the Hardik Pandya-led side succumbed to their sixth loss in nine matches, and are reeling at the penultimate 9th spot on the table.
Put in to bat, Jake Fraser-McGurk equalled his own record for the fastest IPL fifty by getting to the milestone in just 15 balls. The Australian even milked MI’s pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah for 18 runs in the second over and by the time, Bumrah returned to bowl his second over, and gave away just three runs in it, but even then, Delhi Capitals were flying at 92 for no loss at the end of the powerplay.
Frazer-McGurk went on to blaze 84 off 27 balls before finally falling to veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, giving MI some respite. There was a relatively quiet period after the carnage as fellow opener Abhishek Porel fell to Mohammad Nabi on 36 off 27 balls.
Shai Hope then resumed the fireworks, scoring 41 in just 17 balls. He fell to Luke Wood but the pacer was clobbered for 26 runs in his final over by Tristan Stubbs, thus finishing with figures of 1/68. Bumrah then dismissed Rishabh Pant for 29 in 19 balls after which Stubbs ensured that DC got 17 runs in the final over to post a mammoth 257 for 4. Stubbs finished unbeaten on 48 off 25 balls.
In response, Mumbai Indians got off to a shaky start in their hunt for 258 and despite scoring 60 runs in the powerplay the visitors lost Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav in that period.
From there, Tilak Varma (63) and captain Hardik Pandya (46) rebuilt MI’s ship with a 71-run partnership before DC’s impact sub Rakish Salam broke the stand with the wicket of Pandya. Tim David chipped in with a 17-ball 37 but the MI outfit could never match the asking rate, with Mukesh Kumar (3/59) and Salam (3/34) holding their nerves to eventually restrict the visitors to 247 for 9.