Delhi pack off champs Mumbai

Delhi Daredevils eliminated defending champions Mumbai Indians from the Indian Premier League with a thrilling 11-run victory in their last league match at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium on Sunday.

In the battle for the fourth play-off berth, a Mumbai win would have sunk the chances of the two other hopefuls -- Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. Instead, Daredevils put up a brilliant defence of their 174/4 fashioned by Rishabh Pant (64) and Vijay Shankar (43 n.o.) after they elected to bat.

Under tough chasing conditions, Mumbai surrendered to pressure created by the leg-spinning duo of 17-year-old Sandeep Lamichhane (3-36) and the seasoned Amit Mishra (3-19). Ben Cutting kept Mumbai alive with a counter-attacking 20-ball 37, but Boult and Harshal Patel (3-28) bowled superbly at the death to pack off Mumbai for 163 in 19.1 overs.

Mumbai made a solid start despite losing Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan early to Lamichhane and Mishra. Opener Evin Lewis played a fine innings of 48 but once Mishra got him stumped with a googly, Lamichhane effected a middle-order collapse with twin blows in the 10th over. Ishan Kishan’s slog ended at long-on and three balls later, Kieron Pollard was on his way back following a fine catching effort from Glenn Maxwell and Boult. Pollard had hit straight and Maxwell at the boundary rope caught the ball, but lost his balance. However, he quickly released the ball and Boult came darting from long-off to hold it.

The duo pulled off a similar act four overs later, this time to dismiss Rohit Sharma, to leave Mumbai staring down the barrel at 121/6. Hardik Pandya’s departure in the next over further dimmed the hopes but Cutting resurrected the Mumbai chase with big hits. However, with the visitors needing 23 off the last two overs, Boult leaked only five runs in the 19th besides taking the wicket of Mayank Markande. Patel then dismissed Cutting and Bumrah in the final over to end the Daredevils season on a high.

Earlier, the big-hitting Pant composed his fifth half-century of the season after Daredevils openers -- Prithvi Shaw and Maxwell -- failed to get the desired start. It came down to Shreyas Iyer and Pant to shore up the batting. Iyer’s stay, however, turned out to be brief. With the hosts reduced to 75/3 in nine overs, Pant grabbed the reins the way he has done all through this season.

The 20-year-old, who has worn the orange cap for the most part in this edition, freely demonstrated his rich repertoire of shots. He scored both off the spinners and seamers to race to his half-century in 34 balls. With Shankar, he stitched 64 runs for the fourth wicket to revive Daredevils’ innings. The wicket-keeper batsman enthralled the crowd with his one-handed swipes over the ropes, but was removed in the 17th over by Krunal Pandya after his attempt to hit over long-on landed in the hands of Pollard.

Shankar and Abhishek Sharma then put together an unbeaten 35-run stand to put Daredevils in a respectable position and bowlers ensured their efforts did not go waste.