Experienced leg-spinner Amit Mishra dismantled the Mumbai Indians with a rich haul of 4-24 as the Delhi Capitals beat the reigning champions by six wickets in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday night.
Mumbai caved in for 137-9 against Mishra’s brilliant bowling after skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and elected to bat.
Delhi openers Shikhar Dhawan (45) and Australian Steven Smith (33) made useful contributions up front before Delhi reached their winning target of 138 with five balls to spare. “It was a low-scoring match but a difficult pitch to bat on,” Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant said. “We just wanted to keep it simple and we wanted to restrict them to at least 140-150.”
The victory lifted Delhi to six points from four games alongside league leader Royal Challengers Bangalore, who have won all three of their games so far.
Dhawan survived a close catch in Trent Boult’s first over but kept Delhi’s chase on course by hitting five fours and a six in his 42-ball knock. The left-handed opener looked set for his third half century this season before he holed out at deep square leg in the 15th over off Rahul Chahar’s (1-29) legspin.
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Although Pant (7) top edged Jasprit Bumrah’s slower delivery in the 17th over, Lalit Yadav (22 not out) and West Indian Shirmon Hetmeyer (14 not out) took Delhi home in 19.1 overs.
Earlier, Mishra frustrated Mumbai through some intelligent bowling. His two wickets in the ninth over saw Sharma (44) and Hardik Pandya both offering catches at long-on to Smith.
Mishra then reduced the defending champion to 6-84 when he had Kieron Pollard (2) leg before wicket.
The 38-year-old Mishra then returned in the death overs to have Ishan Kishan (26) played onto a delivery back onto his stumps which helped Delhi hold Mumbai to its lowest score this season.
“After the start we got, I thought we could have batted well in the middle overs, which we didn’t do,” Sharma said. “We didn’t capitalize on the start in the powerplay … credit to Delhi bowlers, they kept the pressure up and kept taking wickets.”
Delhi will now take on David Warner's Sunrisers Hyderabad on 25 April. Meanwhile, Mumbai will hope to get back to winning ways against the Punjab Kings, whom they face on 23 April.
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