Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians are up against each other in the 46th match of the Indian Premier League 2021 in Sharjah. DC have already one foot in the playoffs while MI are reeling at the moment and are in the must-win territory.
Rishabh Pant won the toss and opted to bowl first. Lalit Yadav made way for Prithvi Shaw to come in while Mumbai brought Jayant Yadav in place of Rahul Chahar.
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Rohit Sharma started the match with a boundary off the first ball but got out to Avesh Khan soon. Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav tried to steady the ship but the former again fell to a spinner. Suryakumar, who was looking solid, followed him soon and got out to Axar Patel and Mumbai were 87/5 at the end of 15 overs.
Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya were expected to provide MI with a final flourish but none of them managed to swing their bat hard. Avesh Khan was bowling beautifully and conceded only 15 runs in his four overs while grabbing three wickets.
Pandya hit Ashwin for a six on the last ball of the innings and took MI’s total to 129/8 in 20 overs.
In response, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw scored a boundary apiece but saw their downfall inside the powerplay. Steve Smith shuffled too much and ended up exposing his stumps to Nathan Coulter-Nile as DC were 46/3 by the end of the powerplay.
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Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer did the rebuilding job but Pant got out after scoring 26 runs off 22 balls, where he hit three fours and one six. Axar Patel’s promotion lasted only for 9 runs before Trent Boult removed him.
Shreyas Iyer, meanwhile, was holding one end tight and found a good partner in Ravichandran Ashwin. Both batsmen added 39 runs for the seventh wicket and steered DC home with four wickets in hand.
See how Twitter reacted to this game;
Sometimes you have to play the situation than the expectation! Well played @ShreyasIyer15 mature knock ✊ #MIvDC
— Yuvraj Singh (@YUVSTRONG12) October 2, 2021
Experience carries it for @DelhiCapitals @ShreyasIyer15 was excellent under pressure and so was @ashwinravi99 well played. Mumbai will now get into the permutations game.
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) October 2, 2021
More than anything, Mumbai Indians look fatigued and weighed down. Surely they can’t be as bad as they have shown this phase #MIvsDC
— Vikrant Gupta (@vikrantgupta73) October 2, 2021
Terrific spell from Axar. Including 2 left handers. Just goes to show how overdone this whole can’t bowl left arm spin to left handers at small grounds nonsense is. If your bowler is good enough, bowl him regardless. #DCvsMI #IPL2021
— Raunak Kapoor (@RaunakRK) October 2, 2021
I reckon @mipaltan need @KieronPollard55 to face as many balls now as possible in order to get themselves to a big total @IPL @StarSportsIndia
— @BrettLee_58 (@BrettLee_58) October 2, 2021
Avesh Khan and Arshdeep Singh are two young pacers for the future
— Cricketwallah (@cricketwallah) October 2, 2021
No leniency for WC squad members, another has been shown the door in the playing XI of @mipaltan
Shows the importance of tonight's clash. #IPL2O21— Brad Hogg (@Brad_Hogg) October 2, 2021