Delhi knocks Mumbai out of Indian Premier League 11

New Delhi: The defending champions, three time winners Mumbai Indians has been knocked out of Indian Premier League 11. Delhi Daredevils outshined Mumbai Indians by 11 runs at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here on Sunday.

It is, however, only the fourth time when Mumbai has not made the playoffs. DD ended its IPL 2018 on a high with a terrific victor over MI.

Chasing a target of 175 runs in what was a must-win encounter for them, Mumbai were bundled out for 163 runs in 19.3 overs.

Mumbai thus completed the league phase with 12 points from their 14 matches. With Rajasthan Royals already on 14 points and Sunrisers Hyderabad, Chennai Super Kings and Kolkata Knight Riders already qualified, defending champions Mumbai saw their title defence come to an end.

But it was by no means an easy victory. Despite losing wickets at regular intervals, Mumbai kept up a healthy scoring rate and kept the packed stadium on the edge of their seats till the very end.

Leggie Amit Mishra was the most successful among the Delhi bowlers with figures of 3/19 in his four overs. Sandeep Lamichhane claimed 3/36 while Harshal Patel returned with figures of 3/28.

Mumbai suffered their first jolt in the opening over when Suryakumar Yadav (12) holed out to long-on off the bowling of Sandeep Lamichhane.

Yadav had smashed Lamichhane for a boundary and a six off the first two balls of the innings.

Mishra struck in the seventh over when Vijay Shankar pulled off an excellent catch at the long-on boundary of Ishan Kishan (5).

Mishra jolted again in his next over, getting rid of Mumbai opener Evin Lewis, who was just two runs short of his half-century.

Lewis was in good touch, scoring 48 runs off 31 balls with the help of three boundaries and four hits into the stands.

Lamichhane then got rid of Kieron Pollard (7) and Krunal Pandya (4) in the very next over to leave the visitors reeling at 78/5 in the 10th over.

Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma (13) and Hardik Pandya added 34 runs between them before the former fell victim to a brilliant piece of fielding by Glen Maxwell.

It was Hardik who kept the score ticking at a healthy rate before falling while attempting yet another big heave off Mishra. The all-rounder scored 27 runs with two boundaries and a six studding his 17-ball stay in the middle.

Ben Cutting came up with some lower order heroics with 37 runs off 20 balls. But once he fell in the second ball of the final over, it was as good as over for the visitors.

Earlier, once again the Delhi Daredevils (DD) batting looked like a Rishabh Pant show as the young power hitter smashed another half-century to lead his team to a competitive total of 174/4.

Pant smashed 64 runs off 44 balls with 4 fours and 4 sixes. He came in to bat when both the openers Prithwi Shaw (12 off 8, 2 fours) and Glenn Maxwell (22 off 18, 4 fours) had departed and Delhi 38 runs on the board in 4.3 overs.

He went back when the DD was in a comfortable situation at 139 runs for 4 wickets in 16.5 overs.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer also failed to last long and was dismissed at 6 runs off 10 balls. Vijay Shankar remained unbeaten at 43 runs off 30 balls with 3 fours and 2 sixes, while Abhishek Sharma was not out at 15 runs off 10 balls with a six.

Krunal Pandya bowled two overs and picked up a wicket for 11 runs while Jasprit Bumrah conceded 29 runs for a wicket in four overs. Mayank Markande also went for 21 runs in just 2 overs and plucked a wicket. Hardik Pandya, Mustafizur Rahman and Ben Cutting remained wicket-less.

It is surely not going to be easy for MI to chase down such a big target in front of a good attack like DD.

Brief scores:

Delhi Daredevils: 174/4 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant 64, Vijay Shankar 43 n.o.) vs Mumbai Indians: 163 in 19.3 overs (Evin Lewis 48; Sandeep Lamichhane 3/36, Harshal Patel 3/28, Amit Mishra 3/19)