In the 46th match of the VIVO IPl 2021, Delhi Capitals beat Mumbai Indians by four wickets. Shreyas Iyer and Ravichandran Ashwin’s steady partnership on a tricky Sharjah pitch at the back end of the run chase helped DC acquire two more points.
Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to field. DC didn’t let the MI batsmen settle down in the middle and took wickets at regular intervals. The IPL 2020 runner-up restricted the defending champions to a mere total of 129. DC didn’t get a decent start as they lost their openers within the first two overs. DC’s top three batsmen were back in the pavilion before the powerplay concluded. Shreyas Iyer and Rishab Pant were the two new batsmen at the crease, they stitched a small partnership of 27 runs which kept the scoreboard ticking. The Delhi-based franchise lost Pant (26), Axar Patel (9) and Shimron Hetmyer (15) in five overs which brought MI back into the game. Ravichandran Ashwin (20) was the last recognised batsman for DC, while wickets were falling consistently, Iyer held the other end and kept the game moving. The pitch didn’t offer much pace, the run rate was under control, so the two DC batsmen just kept knocking the ball around for singles and doubles. Iyer and Ashwin took the game till the last over by just rotating the strike. Mumbai also managed to restrict DC from scoring runs easily. In the final over, with four needed off the last six, Ashwin went down on one knee and smashed a six at mid-wicket to Krunal Pandya. With this maximum, DC successful completed the dreary run chase on a slow track.
Following this fixture, DC (2) and MI (6) have retained their respective positions with 18 and 10 points each.
Patel and Avesh Khan took three wickets each while Anrich Nortje and Ravichandran Ashwin pocketed one scalp each. On the other hand for MI, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah, Krunal Pandya, Jayant Yadav and Nathan Coulter-Nile had one wicket each to their names.
Scorecard:
Mumbai Indians: 129/8, Overs 20, Suryakumar Yadav (33), Quinton De Kock (19), Avesh Khan (3/15)
Delhi Capitals: 132/6, Overs 19.1, Shreyas Iyer (33), Rishab Pant (26), Nathan Coulter-Nile (1/19)