Mumbai Indians won the toss and opted to bowl first in the game. Jason Behrendorff and Piyush Chawla claimed three wickets each, while Riley Meredith picked up two scalps as Mumbai held Delhi to 172 all out. In the chase, MI got home off the last ball as Tim David and Cameron Green managed to complete the two runs required for victory.
Batting first, Delhi lost Prithvi Shaw for 15 to Hrithik Shokeen. Manish Pandey looked dangerous, but fell for 26 off 18, trying to take on Chawla. Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell and Lalit Yadav all fell for single figure scores as Delhi crumbled to 98 for 5 by the 13th over.
Delhi captain David Warner held one end up by never got going. He made 51 off 47 balls, hitting six fours. It needed another special effort from Axar Patel to lift Delhi. The left-hander struck 54 off only 25 balls with the aid of four fours and five sixes. Behrendorff, however, dismissed both Warner and Axar in the 19th over and also got the wicket of Abishek Porel, while Kuldeep Yadav was run out.
Chasing 173, Mumbai Indians openers Rohit Sharma (65 off 45) and Ishan Kishan added 71 for the first wicket. The partnership came to an end when Kishan was run out. However, Tilak Varma (41 off 29) joined Rohit and the two took MI’s score to 139. Varma and Suryakumar Yadav (0) fell to Mukesh Kumar off consecutive deliveries.
Rohit also perished to Mustafizur Rahman, caught behind by a superb diving catch from Porel. However, Cameron Green (17 not out) and Tim David (13 not out) added 30 runs for the fifth wicket to guide Mumbai to their first win of the season.
Reflecting on the victory, MI skipper and Player of the Match Rohit commented, “Winning the game is the most important. We have been working hard from the first game. We had a camp in Mumbai, getting the result feels good. First win is always special.”
On the team’s overall performance, he added, “The spinners kept us in the game. We needed to bat well to chase the total. I thought everyone put their hand up. We had to make it count for the team. I needed to make use of the powerplay, I knew we had to keep attacking and take our chances. I tried to create a partnership, had a good communication with Tilak. It was important for us to have a good partnership.”
--By A Cricket Correspondent
