Mumbai Indians eased into the fourth spot on the IPL league table after a five-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils on Tuesday at the Wankhede, its fifth triumph in 10 games. Amidst two disruptions due to rain, the compact Rohit Sharma (46, 37b, 2x4, 3x6), the adventurous Ambati Rayudu (49 n.o., 40b, 4x4, 1x6) and the powerful Kieron Pollard (26 n.o., 14b, 3x6) teamed up to guide the side home with three balls to spare.
MI had faced four overs, losing opener Lendl Simmons and one-drop Hardik Pandya, when an electric storm caused a brief stoppage in play.
When play resumed, Parthiv Patel hit the first ball on resumption for a boundary, but perished off the next ball trying to cut Mathews only to be held by cover Amit Mishra.
The following over saw Harbhajan dismissed cheaply, and the home team was 40 for four after 5.2 overs when rain forced another interruption.
Earlier, Harbhajan and Suchith put the brakes on DD; the veteran off-spinner had figures of 4-1-11-2 after an outstanding demonstration of guile and craft. Complimenting his effort was the young left-arm spinner (3-0-24-1).
The Daredevils’ innings was built around Yuvraj’s 57 (7x4, 2x6). Banking on balance and timing, he showed that flowing batting can be as effective in T20 as brutal hitting.
Malinga got the home crowd howling in delight with a first-ball wicket, opener Mayank Agarwal edging behind, to bring out skipper Duminy early.
At the other end, Shreyas stole three boundaries off McClenaghan in the fourth over, surviving a sharp chance at sweeper cover, where Pandya and Suchith nearly collided in going for the catch. Harbhajan sent the young opener back off his first delivery in the fifth over.
The Daredevils lost skipper Duminy in the seventh over, snapped up by Suchith on the follow-through via a tumbling catch.
The strokeplayers were kept in check till the 17th over when Yuvraj went on the offensive against Malinga, and then swung into action against McClenaghan.
The left-hander fell to a stunning one-handed catch by an airborne Lendl Simmons. He swung and missed more times than he would have liked, but still managed to emerge DD’s top-scorer.
