IPL 2021: Match 13 - DC vs MI - Who Said What

Delhi Capitals (DC) have finally managed to defeat the Mumbai Indians (MI) in match 13 of the Indian Premier League (IPL). They had lost to the five-time champions on four occasions last season and many had thought that MI will win this game comfortably. But the Capitals had their plans set for the pitch at Chepauk and Amit Mishra turned out to be the hero for them.

The leg-spinner was included in the side for this game and he didn’t disappoint. Mishra picked four wickets while conceding only 24 runs. He picked wickets of Rohit Sharma, Ishan Kishan, Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard to stun MI who were looking good with the bat at one stage. Rohit scored 44 off just 30 balls but his wicket triggered a collapse. MI were reduced to 84/6 from 76/2 in a space of 19 balls.

But Jayant Yadav and Kishan stitched a patient partnership to make sure they got to a fighting total of 137/9 in their 20 overs. Apart from Mishra, Avesh Khan also bowled well returning with the figures of 2/15 in his two overs.

The chase was never going to be easy for the Delhi Capitals given the strength in MI’s bowling. Prithvi Shaw got out early but Shikhar Dhawan and Steve Smith stitched a crucial stand rotating the strike. Even after the latter’s dismissal, Dhawan continued to bat calmly and that was extremely important in the tense chase.

Though he got out in the last five overs and things went close, Lalit Yadav and Shimron Hetmyer didn’t deter and made sure their team won the match in the final over.

Man of the Match, Amit Mishra said:

Just tried to bowl good areas, just try to take wickets. Different bowlers have different style. My style is to bowl in the air. Don’t want to change much. Sometimes the speed maybe. I try to understand the wicket and bowl like that. THey are winners for MI and so I always go for wickets against these guys initially. I was worried but I knew our batters are smart enough. They have some experience now after playing two matches here.

DC skipper Rishabh Pant said:

When we started we were little under pressure. Mishy bhai got us into the game. Bowlers did a great job to restrict them to 136. We like to talk it into the ground, take one match at a time. He’s a great Indian player we’re trying to groom (Lalit Yadav). Can do wonders on pitches like these. What we’ve learnt is if you keep wickets in hand you can chase any target.

MI skipper Rohit Sharma said:

After the start we got we should have batted better in the middle overs. It is happening time and again. We aren’t able to capitalize on our starts and we need to understand as a batting unit. But you have to give credit to the Delhi bowlers, they kept it tight and kept taking wickets.

We knew dew would come in but we have seen that it’s not all that difficult to grip the ball in the last few games. Dew isn’t the factor, we need to play smart cricket to win games which we didn’t do today. [On his injury] It’s only a niggle. It should be fine.