CHENNAI: When Suryakumar Yadav walked into bat against Delhi Capitals on Wednesday, despite losing Rohit Sharma early, Mumbai Indians were on a roll. They finished the powerplay with 54/2 on board and looked all set to build on the momentum through middle-overs.
However, Kuldeep Yadav removed Ryan Rickelton and MI had to hit the brakes. Over the next 6.2 overs, along with Tilak Varma, Yadav had to slow down to ensure there was no further collapse. In this period, they added just 40 runs from 38 balls.
It was only in the 14th over, MI got going. Yadav, who has hit a purple patch of sorts, recorded his 13th consecutive 25+ scores in T20s, equalling the record with South African Temba Bavuma. Just as it looked like they were shifting gears, Tilak and Hardik Pandya fell in quick succession. With 12 balls left in the innings, MI were lingering at 132/5, quite the contrary to the way they had finished the powerplay.
That is when Yadav kicked in with Naman Dhir. The duo took Mukesh Kumar to cleaners, smashing three sixes and two fours — 27 runs came off the penultimate over including Yadav's fifty. Dhir and Yadav brought out their hitting range, punishing the minimal errors made by DC pacers. The last over, from Dushmantha Chameera, was no different. Yadav started with a four through extra covers. A slower ball was sent over deep midwicket boundary before Yadav clobbered a low full toss even further. On the penultimate delivery, a yorker nonetheless, Yadav created room to squeeze it for four behind point.
By the time he walked off the field, MI had gone from 132/5 to 180/5 in 12 balls — 48 runs came in the final two overs, providing the five-time champions enough runs on the board to put pressure on Delhi.
That pressure was evident from ball one as DC, in what is a must-win contest for them tried to go hard from ball one. KL Rahul, who got back to opening and scored a century that went in vain against Sunrisers Hyderabad, flashed hard to get a four of the first ball. Faf du Plessis too seemed eager to get going. But it backfired as both of them were back in the pavilion after 16 deliveries.
Abhishek Porel did not last either as DC were down to 27/3. That is when Vipraj Nigam came out all guns blazing against Will Jacks. The Uttar Pradesh all-rounder played some ridiculous shots on his way to a 11-ball 20 but he too could not sustain the momentum.
As it has been the story of the season, Delhi started well before losing the plot and spiralling. On Thursday, they did the same first with the ball after keeping MI in check for 18 overs. And later with the bat, panicking and losing half their side in the first ten overs. It was down to Ashutosh Singh and Sameer Rizvi to pull off a miracle from thereon. However, it was too late as Delhi were knocked out of the tournament while Mumbai sealed their place in the playoffs.
Brief scores: 180/5 in 20 ovs (Yadav 73 n.o, Dhir 24 n.o; Mukesh 2/48) bt DC 121 in 18.2 ovs (Santner 3/11, Bumrah 3/12).
