IPL 2022: Match 2, DC vs MI – Who Said What

Delhi Capitals got off to a winning start in their IPL 2022 campaign as they staged an excellent victory against the Mumbai Indians in a relatively tough run chase. Delhi despite losing wickets at regular intervals, were always up with the required run rate and it helped them massively in the end as they got won by four wickets and 10 balls left. Axar Patel (38*)and Lalit Yadav’s (48*) partnership for the seventh wicket in just 30 balls was the turning point in the game.

Chasing a target of 178, Delhi did not have the best of starts losing three wickets inside the powerplay. However, Yadav and Prithvi Shaw steadied the ship with a crucial partnership of 40 runs for the fourth wicket and kept the Delhi side in the hunt. Shaw perished after a well made 24-ball 38 while Rowman Powell couldn’t trouble the scorers. Shardul Thakur came in at seven and straightaway went after the bowling to reduce the required rate with a quickfire cameo of 11-ball 22.

Kuldeep Yadav shines for DC with the ball in hand

Mumbai missed the trick in their campaign opener even after putting a high score on the board. Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 81 alongside skipper Rohit’s 41 at the top of the order were among the few positives for the franchise while they will not be happy with their death bowling despite having experienced campaigners like Jasprit Bumrah.

As far as the Delhi franchise is concerned, Kuldeep Yadav’s three-wicket haul will be a huge positive for the side moving forward while Yadav has been groomed into an excellent finisher already. They are likely to be more destructive once their big names like David Warner and Anrich Nortje are available.

Losing skipper, Rohit Sharma said:

I thought it was a good score. It didn’t look like a pitch where you can get 170+ at the start but we played in the middle and finished well. Just didn’t bowl according to our plans. Never been the talk (of badly wanting to win the first game). We always come prepared whether it’s the first game or last game. We want to win every game. Things didn’t go according to plan but that can happen. Just need to stay close as a group and take the learnings. Disappointed with the loss but not the end.

Tim Seifert said:

Everything is good. Great way to start the campaign, for me and the team. It was entertaining (game), T20 cricket. We showed fighting courage. Sometimes you got to stick the mitts out. It was good to see the back of him early (on Pollard’s catch). We have been here for a week. It has been excellent. The cricket we have been talking (with Ponting) has been excellent. Looking forward to the next few months with him.

Winning skipper, Rishabh Pant said:

At the back of our minds with us losing wickets, we felt it was gone, but we just kept believing. We tried to focus on controllables. We knew we didn’t have a lot of manpower with Mitch Marsh and Warner not here. But we just wanted to make use of whatever we had. It is one of the best spells of Kuldeep in a long time. He was just giving it his everything in the nets and at practice. It is important to not be complacent after just one match.

Player of the match, Kuldeep Yadav said:

It was a difficult time for me. I was out with injury for five months. It was important for me to go for the rehab and thanks to the facilities and trainers at the NCA, I recovered very well and in time to get back into the Indian set up. And slowly I started match preparation and when I started playing the games, I got the confidence and Rohit motivated me a lot. Whatever changes need to be done, I had that communication with him. And here in the Delhi set up I spoke to Ricky (Ponting) and he backed me a lot. I was lacking rhythm from a long time and I worked on my rhythm a lot and never compromised on turning the ball despite the variation in pace.