Leg-spinner Amit Mishra’s four wickets for 24 runs helped Delhi Capitals (DC) ease to a six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians (MI) in an Indian Premier League match here at the M A Chidambaram Stadium on Tuesday night.
The win put DC second on the points table, just behind Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). While both teams have six points, RCB is ahead on net run rate.
Mishra’s haul helped DC restrict MI to 137/9 in 20 overs. It was a total that was too low for MI to defend as Shikhar Dhawan’s 45 (42 balls, 5x4s, 1×6) and Steve Smith’s 33 (29 balls, 4x4s) stabilised DC innings after the early loss of Prithvi Shaw.
Dhawan and Smith added 53 for the second wicket before the India left-hander was joined in by Lalit Yadav (22 off 25 balls). The two Delhi lads added 36 for the third wicket to put DC on track.
The MI bowlers, who conceded three no-balls in the last two overs, tried hard to make a match of it and took the match till the last over but the batting failure weighed heavily on them.
The MI batsmen were, earlier, looking good but the advent of Mishra saw them lose track.
The leg-spinner, who is playing his second game of this season, removed skipper Rohit Sharma and Hardik Pandya, both caught in the deep as well as Ishan Kishan, who was bowled and Kieron Pollard, who was out leg-before wicket.
MI, who lost Quinton de Kock early to Marcus Stoinis, were looking good at one stage as Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav added 58 for the second wicket. However, Yadav’s dismissal off the bowling of Avesh Khan triggered a collapse.
Mishra then got into the act as MI lost four wickets, including three to Mishra, while adding just eight runs. Both Sharma and Hardik fell in the space of three balls.
Krunal Pandya was bowled by off-spinner Lalit Yadav.
The wickets pegged MI back as they tried to stage some recovery with Kishan and Jayant Yadav. However, Mishra removed Kishan, yorking him, and soon Jayant was caught and bowled by Kagiso Rabada.
While Mishra took four wickets, pace bowler Avesh took two for 15 in two overs while Rabada and Lalit Yadav picked a wicket each.
Brief scores: Mumbai Indians 137/9 in 20 overs (R Sharma 44, I Kishan 26, S Yadav 24, A Mishra 4/24, A Khan 2/15) lost to Delhi Capitals 138/4 in 19.1 overs (S Dhawan 45, S Smith 33, L Yadav 22 not out, S Hetmyer 14 not out)