Bowlers deliver win for Mumbai

Hosts choke Daredevils in modest chase for their 6th victory

 Mumbai Indians’ bowlers rose to the occasion after the team’s tough time with the bat as the hosts recorded their sixth win on the trot with a comfortable 14-run victory over Delhi Daredevils in an IPL match, here on Saturday night.

Daredevils, believed to have one of the best attacks, restricted the hosts to 142 for eight but were terrible in run chase, managing only 128 for seven.

The visitors were gasping at 24 for six at one stage before a 91-run stand between South African pair of debutant Kagiso Rabada (44) and Chris Morris (52) raised their hopes. However, it only reduced the margin of defeat.

Kiwi paceman Mitchell McClenaghan (3/24) scalped three batsmen to rock the Delhi top and middle order and Jasprit Bumrah (2/21) broke the seventh-wicket stand between the South Africans to shape his side’s win.

Delhi needed 30 runs off the final 12 balls but Bumrah and Hardik Pandya denied the rivals a win after they made remarkable recovery through Rabada and Morris.

Leg-spinner Amit Mishra returned exceptional figures 4-0-18-2 while Australian paceman Pat Cummins (2/20) also chipped in with two wickets in Daredevils’ good bowling show.

It was a collective bowling effort from Daredevils with Rabada (1/30) and skipper Zaheer Khan also contributing in choking the Mumbai line-up which is full of devastating batsmen.

However, the batsmen could not complement the good work done by the bowlers and suffered their fourth loss in six matches.

Mumbai Indians on the other hand consolidated their position at the top with sixth win in a row.
Earlier, It was Hardik’s 24 off 23 balls and West Indian Kieron Pollard’s 26 off 29 balls that helped the home side to go beyond the 140-run mark after being 84/5 at one stage.

Mumbai managed to score only 32 runs in the last five overs as Daredevils skipper Zaheer made some good bowling changes.

Daredevils were also brilliant in the field as they managed to run out three Mumbai batsman including Hardik. For the visitors, pacemen Cummins and Rabada, who made his IPL debut, were impressive.

Score board

MUMBAI INDIANS: Parthiv Patel b Rabada 8, Jos Buttler (run out) 28, Nitish Rana c Anderson b Cummins 8, Rohit Sharma c Cummins b Mishra 5m, Kieron Pollard c Samson b Cummins 26, Krunal Pandya c Pant b Mishra 17, Hardik Pandya (run out) 24, Harbhajan Singh (run out) 2, Mitchell McClenaghan (not out) 1, Mitchell Johnson (not out) 7. Extras (LB-5, WD-10, NB-1) 16. Total (For 8 wkts, 20 overs) 142.
Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-47, 3-56, 4-60, 5-84, 6-120, 7-132, 8-135.

Bowling: Kagiso Rabada 4-0-30-1, Chris Morris 4-0-33-0, Zaheer Khan 4-0-36-0, Amit Mishra    4-1-18-2, Pat Cummins 4-0-20-2.

DELHI DAREDEVILS: Sanju Samson c Rohit b McClenaghan 9, Aditya Tare (run out) 0, Karun Nair b Hardik 5, Shreyas Iyer c Parthiv b McClenaghan 6, Corey Anderson lbw McClenaghan 0, Rishab Pant c Harbhajan b Bumrah 0, Kagiso Rabada b Bumrah 44, Chris Morris (not out) 52, Pat Cummins (not out) 4. Extras (B-2, LB-1, W-5) 8. Total (for 7 wkts; 20 overs) 128.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-10, 3-20, 4-21, 5-21, 6-24, 7-115.
Bowling: Mitchell Johnson 4-1-23-0, Mitchell McClenaghan 4-0-24-3, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-21-2, Hardik Pandya 3-0-23-1, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-26-0, Krunal Pandya 1-0-8-0.