A third last-ball cliffhanger in as many days. This season of the Indian Premier League is turning out to be quite something else!
IPL 2023: Full coverage Purple Cap
Mumbai Indians finally opened their account this season with a six-wicket victory over Delhi Capitals in Delhi on Tuesday. However, It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the five-time champions, who are known to be slow-starters in the league, as they nearly bottled the chase from a dominant position.
A victory’s a victory though, and the Rohit Sharma-led side will take it however it comes, hoping that the two points on the board that takes them to the eighth spot on the points table past Sunrisers Hyderabad is the start of a revival two weeks into the 16th edition of the tournament.
As for Delhi Capitals, who are being led by David Warner with regular skipper Rishabh Pant out of action for a while after meeting with an accident, a fourth defeat in as many games this season has made the road to the playoffs an extremely difficult, if not impossible path, and they will have to play out of their skins this season if they are to keep their hopes of lifting their first-ever title alive.
As we look back at the events of the Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians clash, we take a look at some of the top moments:
Axar produces game-changing knock
Delhi would have struggled crossing 150 today had it not been for Axar Patel’s game-changing 54, the all-rounder racing to his maiden IPL half-century in just 22 deliveries and helping his team recover from a collapse in the middle overs.
Delhi Capitals’ Axar Patel celebrates after bringing up his maiden IPL fifty during Match 16 of IPL 2023 against Mumbai Indians.
Though David Warner also brought up a half-century batting at the other end, his strike rate was a major concern for the home team and it was Axar’s effortless hitting all over the park that ultimately put them on the path towards a challenging total. The spin-bowling all-rounder, who had been in terrific form both with bat and ball across formats for India before the IPL, collected four boundaries and five maximums during his knock.
Delhi collapse like a pack of cards
Losing wickets in a cluster has been one of the main reasons why Delhi have struggled this season and that issue reared its head in the defeat to Mumbai as well as Delhi suffered collapses not once, but twice.
First it was Piyush Chawla’s inspired spell of 3/22 with the veteran leg-spinner shifting the momentum by getting rid of Manish Pandey shortly after powerplay. Chawla would then dismiss Rovman Powell and Lalit Yadav for single-digit scores as DC collapsed to 98/5 from 76/1.
The second time Delhi crumbled was in the penultimate over in which Delhi lost four wickets for just one run in a brilliant over by Jason Behrendorff. The Aussie left-arm seamer dismissed Axar and Warner in the first three deliveries and got Abhishek Porel caught near long on, while Nehal Wadhera ran Kuldeep Yadav out with a superb direct hit at the non-striker’s end.
Riley Meredith would castle Anrich Nortje next over to bowl Delhi out for 172.
Rohit Sharma ends long wait for another half-century
Rohit Sharma had firmly insisted that the seniors, himself included, had to stand up and delivery following MI’s seven-wicket loss at the hands of CSK at home.
The skipper on his part managed to live up to his words as he struck a 45-ball 65, ending a near-two-year wait for a half-century in the IPL and laying the foundation for a successful chase by forging solid partnerships with fellow opener Ishan Kishan and Tilak Verma.
Rohit was particularly ruthless in the powerplay and what stood out in his knock was the manner in which he smoked the ball into the stands with an effortless pull off a world-class pacer in Nortje.
A bad day in office for SKY
It was a good day in office for the likes of Rohit, Axar, Behrendorff and Chawla. Not so much for Suryakumar Yadav, who not only got dismissed for a golden duck to extend a woeful run with the bat, but also copped a painful blow near his left eyebrow after making a mess of a catch that could’ve seen Axar’s back much earlier.
Axar was batting on 35 in the 17th over, having hit a six off the previous delivery, when he mistimed a ball towards long off where Surya got in position for the catch. Except the ball burst through his palms and hit him on the face, resulting in the MI team physio having to rush out to the centre and check on him.
SKY, who had been dismissed for a hat-trick of golden ducks in the ODI series against Australia, would end up departing right after Tilak Verma’s dismissal, guiding a short ball straight to fine leg to follow his 1 against CSK with a first-ball duck as Mukesh Kumar revived Delhi’s hopes with back-to-back strikes in the 16th over.
Green, David display nerves of steel
The game had turned on its head after Mukesh got rid of Varma and Yadav in successive deliveries and Mustafizur had Rohit caught-behind in the following over. Scoring at the Arun Jaitley surface had suddenly become that much more difficult.
Thankfully for Mumbai, they had two tried-and-tested match-winners in Tim David and Cameron Green at the centre. And display nerves of steel they did, with the two collecting a six each to extract 15 runs off Mustafizur in the crucial penultimate over, bringing the equation down to just five off six.
Nortje bowled an outstanding final over, firing a series of pin-point yorkers; Green and David however, managed to finish the job in singles — and an all-important double off the last ball.
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