IPL 10, Match 45, DD v MI Review: Mumbai Indians crush Daredevils to storm into playoffs

Mumbai Indians have continued their merry run in this season. They made an absolute mockery of the Delhi Daredevils to march into the playoffs. With 18 points to their name, they are now sure to get a place in the final four. Also, at the same time, the defeat for the Delhi Daredevils has now meant that they are virtually out of contention from making it to the knockout stages. They were beaten by the biggest margin in the history of the IPL.

They will now have to depend on the results of the other teams to have their chances alive of making it to the playoffs. Coming in to the game, both teams had come to the game riding on a winning note. The Daredevils had registered two comprehensive wins in big run chases to have their spirits sky high prior to the game. They had yet another chance to register another big run chase but the Mumbai Indians bowling was too good to handle for them.

In the match, it was the Delhi Daredevils skipper Zaheer Khan who won the toss and opted to bowl first. DD were bolstered by the return of Zaheer Khan, who came in place of Shahbaz Nadeem. On the other hand, Mumbai Indians roped in Lendl Simmons and Harbhajan Singh in the playing eleven at the expense of Jos Buttler and Krunal Pandya.

The Mumbai Indians had a new opening pair at hand with Parthiv Patel and Lendl Simmons coming to the crease. The pair changed but the fortunes did not. Both batsmen gave a flying start to the Mumbai camp. They blasted the strong Delhi lineup right from the word go. A magnificent opening stand of 79 set things up for the MI team. Patel was the first to be dismissed as he was stumped on 25 off the bowling of Amit Mishra.

Kieron Pollard was promoted up the order at number three. The West Indies duo of Simmons and Pollard continued to hammer the opposition at will. Lendl Simmons reached his fifty and looked set for more. He perished in the 13th over after having scored 66 off 43 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes. Corey Anderson was the beneficiary. Rohit Sharma could not do much on the day and departed after scoring just 10 off 6 balls.

Meanwhile, Pollard raced past his fifty. He remained unbeaten on 63 off 35 balls with 5 fours and 4 sixes. Pollard’s swirl was well supported by Hardik Pandya’s whirlwind unbeaten 29 that came off just 14 balls with 3 sixes and a four. Mumbai Indians finished with 212/3 to their name in the stipulated 20 overs. The target was daunting but the young fearless batsmen of Delhi backed themselves to chase it.

However, as the things turned out to be, it was a horror run for Delhi in the run chase. There was nothing much to talk about the innings. Only one batsman got past the 20 run mark and in all, only 3 batsmen got into the double digits as they bundled out for a paltry 66. They had a horrid start with Sanju Samson departing on a golden duck on the very first ball of the innings. Mitch McClenaghan got the breakthrough.

Karun Nair scored well enough for his 21 but found no support. The wickets kept tumbling and even the big star of the previous match, Rishabh Pant, bagged a duck too. The Mumbai Indians bowlers shared wickets among themselves to seal the game for them. Karn Sharma and Harbhajan Singh bagged three wickets each to wrap up the game and Mumbai Indians won the game by 146 runs.

Brief Scores:

Mumbai Indians 212/3 in 20 overs (Simmons 66, Pollard 63*, Anderson 1/29, Rabada 1/33)

Delhi Daredevils 66/10 in 13.4 overs (Nair 21, Anderson 10, Karn 3/11, Harbhajan 3/22)

Check the full scorecard here.