Before this match, the Delhi Capitals were on a losing steak against the defending champions, Mumbai Indians. But yesterday in Chennai, Delhi Capitals displayed an all-around clinical performance and won their first game of the IPL 2021 season.
In the last season, MI had won all the five encounters when they played the Capitals. DC has broken this chain and defeated MI by six wickets.
MI won the toss, and they opted to bat first in the 13th match of this season. MI tried to take advantage of the field restrictions overs. But they had a poor to their innings as De Kock departed early. He was out in the second over for just two runs.
Then the mini stand between Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav provided the momentum for MI in this innings. They wanted to set a strong foundation so that they would finish the innings on a high.
But it was Avesh Khan who broke the stand when he got the fluent MI Batter, Suryakumar Yadav, who tried to steer the ball towards the third man region. But he edged the ball, which went straight to the keeper skipper, Pant. SKY was out for 24 runs.
Mumbai Indians had scored 46 runs with the loss of two wickets in the powerplay overs. Rohit and Ishan Kishan tried to take the innings forward. Amit Mishra, who had dismissed Rohit Sharma six times in the IPL history.
He got the wicket of Hit Man for the seventh time. The over from Mishy Bhai changed the match towards the Capitals as Mishra took two wickets in the same over.
Mishra dismissed Rohit Sharma for 44 runs, and then on the next delivery, Hardik Pandya went to hit an Arial shot. But he couldn’t clear Steve Smith, and Hardik was caught on the boundary line for a first-ball duck.
DC kept on picking up wickets at the regular intervals. But that didn’t affect the run flow of the Mumbai Indians batters. MI batters hit boundaries and sixes now and then, which allowed the run rate to be at nine.
After the top-order collapse, it was too much for Kishan to handle this situation. Krunal Pandya continued his low scores, and MI didn’t get the Pollard power this time around.
Amit Mishra was in action again, and he dismissed the West Indian power-hitter early. Pollard didn’t read the googly from Mishra, and he was caught plumb in front for two runs.
MI regain some momentum through the cameos of Jayant Yadav while Ishan Kishan was still strangled at the other end. Kishan wasn’t fluent and struggle to time the ball.
He took time to get going, and in the 16th over against Ashwin, Kishan hit a six, and he took three double runs with Jayant Yadav, which kept the scoreboard ticking. But it was Mishra yet again with another wicket to his name. Ishan was out to the veteran spinner for 24 runs.
MI needed the finishing kick. But that wasn’t provided as well set Jayant Yadav was also dismissed in the 18th over. Yadav contributed handy runs with the bat. He scored 23 runs.
But MI couldn’t post an imposing score on the board. They managed just 137 runs from their allotted quota of 20 overs.
Amit Mishra was the star for DC in this match. He is the highest wicket-taker against MI, and he continues to be so for his franchise. Mishra picked up four wickets, and Avesh Khan picked up two wickets while Stoinis, Rabada, and Lalit Yadav got one wicket each to their names.
The run chase of 138 runs didn’t start well for the Delhi Capitals franchise. They lost Prithvi Shaw in the first over itself. Shaw was brilliantly caught by Jayant of his bowling for seven runs.
Then it was a struggling partnership of 53 runs between Steve Smith and Shikhar Dhawan which kept them in the game. But that too didn’t go long. It was ended by Pollard when Smith was caught leg before for 33 runs.
DC had another blow when they reached the hundred-run mark. Shikhar Dhawan was out for 45 runs. But DC batters didn’t hit big shots despite losing just two wickets, and the target wasn’t much to chase. DC also lost their skipper after Dhawan; Pant was out for just seven runs.
Then, Lalit Yadav and Shrimron Hetmyer were the ones to chase this target down without any further hiccups. Hetmyer was unbeaten on 14 runs, and Lalit Yadav was not out 22 runs. DC chased this target down in 19.1 overs and won this game by a margin of six wickets.
MI bowlers tried hard, but they didn’t have enough total to defend. Bumrah, Pollard, Jayant, and Rahul Chachar picked one wicket each to their names. Amit Mishra was named the player for the match. He took four wickets and gave away 25 runs in his four overs.
