 "Mumbai Indians batter Suryakumar Yadav celebrates after completing a 36-ball half-century against Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, 21 May. AP")
The in-form Suryakumar Yadav produced his best performance of the season so far, smashing an unbeaten 73 off 43 deliveries while Mitchell Santner (3/11) and Jasprit Bumrah (3/12) collected three wickets each as Mumbai Indians thrashed Delhi Capitals by 59 runs at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. In the process, the Hardik Pandya-led side became the fourth and final team to qualify for the Indian Premier league playoffs.
Suryakumar Yadav adjudged the Player of the Match for an outstanding knock on a tricky Wankhede pitch where none of the other batters crossed 40. Middle-order batter Naman Dhir also chipped in with a handy 24 not out off 8 balls. As for their bowling department, while Santner and Bumrah were the key architechts of Delhi’s collapse with the former making his first appearance in nearly a month, each of the six bowlers utilised by skipper Pandya played a part with at least one wicket.
MI are set to play their final league match of the 18th IPL season at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, with the New PCA Stadium in Mullanpur and the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad hosting the playoffs. The five-time IPL champions thus signed off from their home ground in the ongoing IPL season with a commanding victory.
MI, thus, have qualified for the IPL playoffs for the 11th time in 18 seasons and for the third time in the last five years. DC, on the other hand, fail to qualify for the playoffs despite winning each of their first four matches of the season.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAxar-less Delhi crumble against clinical Mumbai
Delhi Capitals, who came into this contest with their fair share of opportunity to reach the final four, saw the tables being turned on them when MI batters collected 48 runs off the last two overs.
But the visitors were also guilty of a meek reply in a do-or-die contest which had their top-order blown away in the powerplay, leaving the rest of the contest a mere formality.
Chasing 181, Delhi Capitals, who were without regular skipper Axar Patel in this game, rolled over for 121 in 18.2 overs with Sameer Rizvi (39) being the top scorer.
Mitchell Santner was the pick of the Mumbai Indians bowlers, returning 4-0-11-3 and accounting for Rizvi, Vipraj Nigam (20) and Ashutosh Sharma (18). Jasprit Bumrah enjoyed another successful outing as he returned 3.2-0-12-3.
Delhi Capitals’ hopes suffered severe blows right at the start of the chase when stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis (6) and KL Rahul (11) fell cheaply, leaving the others with a mountainous task to accomplish.
Rahul, coming off an unbeaten ton in the last game, perished when he edged one off the toe end of the bat awkwardly off Trent Boult (1/29) while du Plessis hit one straight to long-on off Deepak Chahar (1/22).
Bumrah left DC reeling at 65/5 when he trapped Tristan Stubbs (2) in front of the wickets and in the 15th over, Santner dismissed Rizvi and Ashutosh to shut the doors completely on the Delhi Capitals.
Earlier in the first half, it was Suryakumar who anchored MI’s resistance even as Delhi’s spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav (1/22) and Nigam (0/25) exploited the sluggish nature of the surface to the maximum benefit.
On an uncharacteristic Wankhede Stadium pitch which had plenty of grip and turn for spinners and slow cutters doing the job for fast bowlers, Suryakumar dug in to produce a quality knock for the five-time IPL winners.
Suryakumar forged two crucial stands which revived a faltering innings. First, amid a challenging phase of play with DC’s spinners dominating the proceedings, Suryakumar put on 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Tilak Varma. Towards the end, found a perfect foil in Dhir (24 off 8 balls, 2x4s, 2x6s) to add another 57 runs from a mere 21 balls.
The tables turned drastically in the last two overs when the Indian T20 skipper Suryakumar and Dhir hit a grand total of five sixes and four boundaries to add 48 runs, shifting the momentum completely in MI’s favour.
However, at one stage it all looked far too difficult for the Mumbai batters who struggled right from the end of the powerplay until the 18th over began.
Rohit Sharma (5) fell to a left-arm pacer for the fourth time this season edging one behind off Mustafizur Rahman ((1/30), Ryan Rickelton (25) and Will Jacks (21) perished after making impressive starts while Tilak made a laborious run-a-ball 27.
With PTI inputs