Two Indians give Mumbai fourth straight win

Rayudu played a solid innings of 49 not out from 40 balls which was laced with four boundaries and a six. (Source: BCCI)

Captain Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu made crucial knocks as Mumbai Indians notched up a thrilling five wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in their rain-affected IPL cricket match to jump to the top half of the league table in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Mumbai struggled early in their chase of 153 as they were reduced to 8 for 2 in second over but captain Rohit Sharma (46) and Ambati Rayudu (49 not out) shared 60 runs for the fifth wicket to repair the innings before Kieron Pollard took them home with three balls to spare with a quick-fire 14-ball 26 not out.

After Tuesday’s win, their fourth on the trot, Mumbai jumped to fourth spot with 10 points from 10 matches while Delhi dropped to sixth place with eight points from 10 matches. This was Delhi’s sixth loss.

It was a hard-earned victory for Mumbai as they had to build their innings brick-by-brick after early loss of wickets besides facing rain interruption. Credit must also be given to the bowlers, especially off-spinner Harbhajan Singh who returned with brilliant figures of 2/11 from his four overs to help Mumbai restrict Delhi to 152 for 6.

Play was interrupted after four overs due to lightening when Mumbai were 25 for 2 with Lendl Simmons (0) and Hardik Pandya (5) having already returned to the pavillion.

Play resumed after a short while, but rain halted it again after 5.2 overs when Mumbai were 40 for 3 and the home side must be feeling nervous at the possibility of losing the match if it could not be resumed.

But play did resume after half an hour and Rohit played the role of sheet anchor after coming out at 8/2 in the second over till he was out in the 16th over. His 37-ball knock had two fours and three sixes.

Rayudu played a solid innings of 49 not out from 40 balls which was laced with four boundaries and a six. Pollard then brought the home supporters at the Wankhede Stadium with a cameo of 26 not out from 14 balls which had three sixes in it as Mumbai scored 153 for five from 19.3 overs.

Earlier, Yuvraj Singh struck a stroke-filled 57 off 44 balls to take Delhi to a challenging 152 for 6 after electing to bat.

Yuvraj, the costliest buy at the players’ auction at Rs 16 crore, has been woefully out of form barring a score of 54 against Kings XI Punjab at Pune and a lot was expected from him to rally Delhi when they slumped to 50 for 3 inside seven overs.

The left-handed batsman rose to the occasion with a stroke-filled 57 off 44 balls that included two successive leg-side sixes off Mitchell McClenaghan and seven fours before he departed slashing Lasith Malinga in the last ball of the penultimate over.

Delhi’s batting was, on the whole, disappointing with skipper Jean-Paul Duminy making the second best score of 28.

For Mumbai, Harbhajan Singh was easily the outstanding bowler with superb figures of 2 for 11 in four overs while Malinga got 2 for 33. McClenaghan was expensive without a wicket to his name while Jagadeesha Suchith and Hardik Pandya took the other two wickets.

Delhi started on the wrong foot when Mayank Agarwal hung his bat out to the first ball from Malinga and edged behind.

The duo of captain Duminy and youngster Shreyas Iyer raised hopes of another fight-back when the South African smashed a straight six with good timing off Vinay Kumar and Iyer followed suit by taking 14 runs off McClenaghan. Iyer hit two lofted fours and was lucky when Suchith and Pandya clashed at cover point while chasing a leading edge and reprieved the youngster on 10.

And when Duminy swung Vinay Kumar for a second six over mid wicket followed by a straight-driven four, the score had jumped to 43 off five overs.

The introduction of spin in the form of Harbhajan Singh paid rich dividends when Iyer needlessly tried a shot off the first ball and got a leading edge to be taken by Vinay Kumar.

At the end of power play, Delhi were 44 for 2.

Duminy, who was looking for a big score, was deceived by Suchith in the next over and drove back to the bowler who anticipated well and grabbed the return catch to leave Delhi struggling at 50 for 3.

Yuvraj, who had trouble reading Harbhajan, and Kedar Jadhav forged a stand of 28 to steady the innings before the latter came out of his crease premeditatedly to the wily off-spinner and was easily stumped as Delhi were reduced to 78 for 4 in the 12th over.

Angelo Mathews joined Yuvraj and the duo took the score past the 100 mark but once again Mumbai made a dent when the former holed out to long off after lofting Pandya for a huge six the previous ball.

It was left to Yuvraj to take Delhi to a competitive total and he struck Malinga for three fours in successive balls in the 17th over — two of those authentic ones in typical Yuvraj style — and 15 runs were added to the total.

Yuvraj then swung McCleghan for a one-legged six over fine leg and then flicked the bowler when he bowled full for another leg-side six in the next over to complete his second half century of the season in 40 balls, with the help of two sixes and seven fours.

Yuvraj finally fell after surviving a caught behind appeal off the previous delivery which was taken on the half volley by stumper Parthiv Patel. His stand with Saurabh Tiwary (13 not out) was worth 41 runs.

The last five overs were productive for Delhi and yielded 57 runs.

Source:: Indian Express