The trend of gargantuan totals — in Indian Premier League in general and at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in particular — continued. So did that of Delhi Capitals winning at home.
Riding on Jake Fraser-McGurk’s pyrotechnics up front and Tristan Stubbs’ strong finish, DC posted 257 for four against Mumbai Indians. Despite the MI power-hitters clearing boundaries frequently, the Capitals pace troika of Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar, and Rasikh Salam Dar picked wickets at regular intervals to control the game.
As a result, despite the visiting team finishing just 10 runs behind the total, the game never slipped out of DC’s grasp.
With Prithvi Shaw failing a fitness test just before the toss, Fraser-McGurk found a new opening partner in Abishek Porel.
The Australian pounced on the MI bowling to amass 89 off the five overs, 78 of which came off his willow. While he cleared the fence at will, his boundary-hitting ability was on full display.
That 80 off his 84 runs came off boundaries underlined his dominance. The best of his 17 boundary hits was his swing over long-on off a slower one to welcome Jasprit Bumrah into the attack.
With Bumrah being unable to strike up front, a toothless MI attack struggled to pull DC back in the middle overs. Stubbs then took on Luke Wood and Nuwan Thushara — the two IPL rookies — to help the Capitals cross the 250-run mark.
The fancied MI top-order had no option to up the ante from ball one. Once DC dismissed the top three in the PowerPlay, MI was always playing catch-up. Khaleel struck twice to get the big fish Rohit Sharma (top-edged to mid-off) and Suryakumar Yadav (jabbed to covers) while Mukesh’s change of pace forced an error out of Ishan Kishan.
Captain Hardik, Tilak Varma and Tim David then played robust innings but they had too much to catch up after the initial damage. Rasikh’s variation in pace also worked wonderfully for the Capitals to close the game out.
Scoreboard
Delhi Capitals: Jake Fraser-McGurk c Mohammad Nabi b Chawla 84 Abishek Porel c Ishan Kishan b Mohammad Nabi 36 Shai Hope c Tilak Varma b Wood 41 Rishabh Pant c Sharma b Bumrah 29 Tristan Stubbs not out 48 Axar Patel not out 11 Extras: (LB-1, NB-1, W-6) 8
Total: (For 4 wickets in 20 overs) 257
Fall of wickets: 1-114, 2-127, 3-180, 4-235
Mumbai Indians bowling: Luke Wood 4-0-68-1, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-35-1, Nuwan Thushara 4-0-56-0, Piyush Chawla 4-0-36-1, Hardik Pandya 2-0-41-0, Mohammad Nabi 2-0-20-1.
Mumbai Indians: Ishan Kishan c Patel b Mukesh Kumar 20 Rohit Sharma c Hope b Ahmed 8 Suryakumar Yadav c Williams b Ahmed 26 Tilak Varma run out (sub Sumit Kumar/Pant) 63 Hardik Pandya c Mukesh Kumar b Rasikh Salam 46 Nehal Wadhera c Pant b Rasikh Salam 4 Tim David lbw b Mukesh Kumar 37 Mohammad Nabi c Hope b Rasikh Salam 7 Piyush Chawla c Hope b Mukesh Kumar 10 Luke Wood not out 9 Extras: (B-2, LB-2, NB-1, W-12) 17
Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 247
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-45, 3-65, 4-136, 5-140, 6-210, 7-223, 8-234, 9-247
Delhi Capitals bowling: Lizaad Williams 3-0-34-0, Khaleel Ahmed 4-0-45-2, Mukesh Kumar 4-0-59-3, Kuldeep Yadav 3-0-47-0, Axar Patel 2-0-24-0, Rasikh Salam 4-0-34-3.
