West Indies allrounder Romario Shepherd has made a name for himself as a regular in T20I cricket and franchise T20 leagues around the world. In the run-up to the 2024 T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the USA, coach Daren Sammy picked Shepherd as one of the players who can dominate the tournament.
On Sunday, the explosive allrounder gave glimpses of his destructive best by blasting Anrich Nortje for 32 runs, and ended up scoring a 10-ball 39 to propel Mumbai Indians to 234/5 against Delhi Capitals in an Indian Premier League contest at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
In reply, Delhi Capitals were right on the money till the end, needing 34 runs off the final over, but Gerald Coeztee’s displined bowling, including two wickets, left the visitors 29 runs short, and handed MI their maiden win in the 17th season of the IPL after three consecutive defeats.
Delhi’s chase was spearheaded by half centuries from Prithvi Shaw (66 off 40 balls) and Tristan Stubbs (71 off 27), and a handy 31-ball 41 from Abhishek Porel, but eventually fell shy of the monumental target, thanks to a displined bowling effort from MI.
Delhi would hope to revisit their bowling plans after becoming the first team in IPL 2024 to concede in excess of 200 on more than one occasion. Against MI, South African Anrich Nortje leaked runs at more than 16.25 per over, Ishant Sharma leaked 40 off his 3 overs, Jhye Richardson and Khaleel Ahmed also were expensive, leaking 79 runs from their eight overs.
In contrast, the MI opening bowlers Gerald Coetzee (4/34) and Jasprit Bumrah (2/22) gave away just 56 from their eight overs, to stiffle Delhi’s chase.
Earlier, after being put in to bat on a placid track, MI meant business with their openers – Rohit Sharma (49 off 27) and Ishan Kishan (42 off 23) setting the tone with an 80-run stand before Tim David (45 not out off 21) and skipper Hardik Pandya’s 33-ball 39 provided them the late flourish, with Shepherd eventually giving them the cushion to open their account.