IPL 2017 | Mumbai crush Delhi’s playoff dreams at the Kotla

05/06/2017

Mumbai Indians showcased their all-round superiority over Delhi Daredevils at the Feroz Shah Kotla today with a 146-run win over the home side. The West Indian duo of Lendl Simmons (66) and Kieron Pollard (63*) powered MI to 212/3 in 20 overs before DD collapsed for an embarrassing score of 66.

Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 212/3 (Lendl Simmons 66, Kieron Pollard 63*; Kagiso Rabada 1/33, Corey Anderson 1/29) beat Delhi Daredevils 66/10 (Karun Nair 21, Corey Anderson 10; Harbhajan Singh 3/22, Karn Sharma 3/11) by 146 runs.

The returning Zaheer Khan won the toss and made the obvious call of bowling first. Shahbaz Nadeem had to make way for his skipper in the team that chased down 208 against Gujarat Lions. Rohit Sharma, on the other hand, made two changes to the side as Lendl Simmons replaced Jos Buttler while Harbhajan Singh came in for the injured Krunal Pandya.

Patel and Simmons put Mumbai in charge

After some tight bowling from Zaheer Khan and Kagiso Rabada in the first few overs, Lendl Simmons made up for lost time by counter attacking the Delhi speedsters in the fourth and fifth overs with a flurry of boundaries. Parthiv Patel, too, got in on the act and the duo’s efforts meant that Mumbai recovered from their slow start to reach 60/0 at the end of the power play. In the next few overs, Patel and Simmons continued to score freely by finding the fence seemingly at will. But just when Delhi were in desperate need of a wicket, Amit Mishra provided them with one as he got Patel stumped in the ninth over. Owing to their impressive start, Mumbai made a change in their batting lineup sending Kieron Pollard up the order to join his compatriot Simmons at the crease and the two West Indians ensured Mumbai reached 84/1 after 10 overs.

Pollard powers Mumbai to a huge total

Playing his first match of the 2017 IPL, Simmons brought up his half-century in the next over, before Pollard smashed consecutive sixes off Mishra. With the regular bowlers struggling to find their rhythm, Zaheer Khan handed the ball to Corey Anderson in the 13th over and the Kiwi repaid his skipper’s faith by dismissing Simmons for a well made 66 off just 43 balls. But despite the loss of his countryman, Pollard continued dealing in sixes with two monstrous hits off Mishra in the next over. Even though Rohit Sharma, not for the first time fell cheaply, Pollard brought up his fifty in typical fashion with three overs to go and along with Hardik Pandya smashed Anderson for 16 runs in the 18th over. Although Rabada conceded just 7 runs in the penultimate over, Pandya and Pollard made amends smoking 23 runs off the last over, by Pat Cummins, which ensured Mumbai finished with a mammoth score of 212/3.

Delhi fall like a house of cards

Delhi Daredevils needed Sanju Samson and Rishabh Pant to do an encore of their knocks from the last game if the home side were to have any chance of winning. But Samson was dismissed on the first ball of the innings as he found Lendl Simmons, at deep square leg, off the bowling of Mitchell McClenaghan. And things got even worse for Delhi as Shreyas Iyer (3), Karun Nair (21), Rishabh Pant (0), and Corey Anderson (10) all fell cheaply and at the end of the powerplay the result was almost certain with Delhi managing just 35 runs for the at the loss of 5 wickets. Soon, the Delhi procession continued, as Karn Sharma joined the party for Mumbai as Rohit Sharma took a flyer at first slip to send Marlon Samuels on his way. Pat Cummins managed to smash Harbhajan for a six in the 9th over, but the turbanator had the last laugh when he sent the Australian pacer packing on the very next ball. Karn Sharma then scalped his second wicket when Rabada edged on to Rohit Sharma. Finally, Delhi were put out of their misery as they crashed to the largest defeat in IPL history, by 146 runs, when Zaheer Khan found Nitish Rana at long on. The win also confirmed Mumbai Indians as the first team to book a place in the playoffs of the 2017 IPL