IPL 10: Mumbai Indians rips apart Delhi Daredevils batting to seal 14-run win

Mumbai: Some deadly bowling and outstanding fielding helped Mumbai Indians (MI) defend a small total of 142/8 against Delhi Daredevils (DD) in Indian Premier League (IPL) season 10 at the Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.

The bowlers helped Mumbai seal the nail-biting encounter by 14 runs and strengthening the side at the top of the points table with 12 points out of 7 matches.

Mumbai pacemen including Mitchell McClenaghan, Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya ripped through Delhi's top order by bagging six early wickets, leaving them in severe trouble at 24/6 in 6.3 overs.

Kagiso Rabada and Chris Morris made their best efforts to rejuvenate struggling Daredevils but their 91-run partnership for the seventh wicket was not enough to resist Mumbai Indians from registering their sixth consecutive victory in the tournament.

Rabada fell in the 19^th over of the inning after scoring a bravely fought 44-run inning that came off just 39 balls. He also smashed 4 fours and a six despite being under immense pressure. Chris Morris continued his good form with the bat as he remained unbeaten at 52 runs off 41 balls, hitting 5 fours and a six.

Coming in to chase a small target of 143 runs, Sanju Samson started off in his recognized style as he smashed two quick boundaries to Mitchell Johnson. He, however, could not continue longer as he got out after scoring 9 runs off 6 balls. His opening partner Aditya Tare fell prey to a stunning fielding effort by Hardik Pandya who found him inches short of his crease while trying to steal a quick single.

After the run out of Tare, the Delhi batting collapsed miserably as Karun Nair (5), Shreyas Iyar (6), Corey Anderson (0) and Rishabh Pant (0) went back to pavilion in no time.

It was a phenomenal bowling effort by Mumbai that saved the match for them. McClenaghan was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged 3 wickets in his four overs, conceding just 24 runs. Bumrah was also not far behind with two wickets in his four overs, which went for mere 21 runs.

Hardik Pandya also showed his bowling prowess by getting the important wicket of Nair and spending just 23 runs in his 3 overs. Mitchell Johnson, though, could not bag any wickets, but remained economical conceding only 23 runs in his four overs and also bowling a maiden. Harbhajan Singh went for 26 runs and remained wicket-less on a pacer-friendly wicket.

Earlier, the disciplined Delhi Daredevils bowling restricted Mumbai Indians at 142/8. The run-out dismissal of two set batsmen- Jos Buttler and Hardik Pandya hurt Mumbai Indians badly as it could not post a decent total. Both were looking set and could have caused more damage.

Also Read: IPL 10 MI vs DD: Delhi restricts Mumbai at 142/8

Jos Buttler, who was looking comfortable at 28, lost his wicket owing to the wrong-call from Nitish Rana at the other end. He hit three fours and two sixes in his 18-ball knock before going back to the dug-out. Hardik hit two sixes in his 24-run inning.

After being invited to bat, MI lost its batsmen in quick successions. Be it Parthiv Patel (8), Nitish Rana (8) or skipper Rohit Sharma (5), everybody failed to produce any impact in the Delhi dominated show.

Pollard took 29 balls to play a 26-run knock with four fours. Krunal was caught behind the wicket at an individual score of 17 runs.

For DD, Amit Mishra and Pat Cummins bagged two-wicket each. Kagiso Rabada, in his IPL debut, picked the only wicket of Parthiv Patel.

Well, with this defeat, Delhi has fallen down to fifth position in the points table with just two wins out of 6 matches. Mitchell McClenaghan was named man of the match for his figures of 3/24.