JOIN USDelhi too good for off-colour Mumbai Indians
AB de Villiers’ half-century powered Delhi Daredevils to a seven-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians in their Indian Premier League match here on Friday.
Chasing 117 for victory, Delhi knocked off the required runs with seven balls to spare and De Villiers unbeaten on 50.
However, that looked a trifle difficult at one stage after, the opening pair of David Warner and Gautam Gambhir who were knocking off the ball well, got out in quick succession.
Warner (21 off 30 balls) suddenly seemed to have lost his cool as he shimmied down the track to JP Duminy, missed the flight and Pinal Shah did the rest behind stumps.
Gambhir (19 off 23) soon followed his opening partner to the pavilion after giving Harbhajan Singh the charge but finding Luke Ronchi instead.
The silly dismissals put pressure back on Delhi and though Tillakaratne Dilshan and De Villiers tried to force the pace of the game, runs trickled in ones and twos.
Putting brakes
The slow bowlers — Duminy and Harbhajan — put the brakes on Delhi and what looked like an easy win was turning out to be a difficult one.
But one over from Sachin Tendulkar changed all that as De Villiers pulled him for three fours and a six over mid-wicket and Delhi were firmly back on track.
De Villiers and Dilshan (19) added 61 runs off 52 balls and by the time the Sri Lankan fell, 10 more runs were needed.
With such a small total to defend, Mumbai Indians needed some quick wickets to put Delhi Daredevils under pressure but it was never to be so as they notched up their sixth win out of eight matches.
Earlier, Dwayne Bravo top-scored with 35 as Mumbai Indians were shot out for 116.
Bravo, along with Abhishek Nayar (18), put on 57 runs off 51 deliveries for the fifth wicket that saved Mumbai the blushes and helped them recover from a precarious 33 for four to go past the 100-mark.
Opting to bat first, Mumbai Indians started with Duminy (0) partnering newcomer Ronchi (0) at the expense of Sanath Jayasuriya and pushed Tendulkar down to give the middle-order some stability.
But the plan went haywire in the very first over after Australian Ronchi perished in search of a non-existent single and Duminy edged Nannes to Dinesh Kaarthick behind stumps.
That brought Tendulkar to the crease and he hit two sweetly-timed boundaries but perished soon, failing to get back to the crease as Kaarthick knocked down the stumps.
At 30 for three, Mumbai were in dire straits and they were in bigger mess when Shah (11), who got a life when Pradeep Sangwan dropped him at 5, tried to send Rajat Bhatia (3/15) out of the park but holed out to Amit Mishra at long on.
Nayar and Bravo got together and the duo hit a few lusty blows, including two sixes by the West Indian, to lend some respectability to the innings.
They put on 57 runs but fell in quick succession. Bravo (35 off 30 balls) edged Nannes to Kaarthick and Nayar (18 from 28) then miscued a shot off Ashish Nehra and Villiers lapped it up.
SCORE BOARD
MUMBAI INDIANS: Luke Ronchi (run out) 0, Jean Paul Duminy c Karthik b Nannes 0, Pinal Shah c Mishra b Bhatia 11, Sachin Tendulkar (run out) 15, Abhishek Nayar c de Villiers b Nehra 18, Dwayne Bravo c Karthik b Nannes 35, Harbhajan Singh b Nehra 10, Ajinkya Rahane c Sangwan b Bhatia 12, Rohan Raje b Bhatia 1, Dhawal Kulkarni (run out) 1, Lasith Malinga (not out) 0. Extras (B-1, lb-2, W-8, nb-2) 13. Total (all out; 20 overs) 116.
Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-1, 3-30, 4-33, 5-90, 6-90, 7-113, 8-114, 9-115.
Bowling: Dirk Nannes 4-0-33-2, Ashish Nehra 4-0-27-2, Pradeep Sangwan 4-0-18-0, Amit Mishra 4-0-20-0, Rajat Bhatia 4-0-15-3.
DELHI DAREDEVILS: Gautam Gambhir c Ronchi b Harbhajan 19, David Warner St Shah b Duminy 21, Tillakaratne Dilshan c Shah b Malinga 17, AB de Villiers (not out) 50, Dinesh Kaarthick (not out) 5. Extras (W-6) 6. Total (for 3 wkts, 18.5 overs) 118.
Fall of wickets: 1-42, 2-46, 3-107.
Bowling: Lasith Malinga 4-0-30-1, Dhawal Kulkarni 3-0-9-0, Dwayne Bravo 1-0-2-0, Harbhajan Singh 4-0-21-1, Jean Paul Duminy 4-0-15-1, Sachin Tendulkar 1-0-19-0, Rohan Raje 1.5-0-22-0.