A big century partnership between Shreyas Iyer and JP Duminy, a score of 190 posted in the first innings by the Delhi Daredevils and the Mumbai Indians crumbling in the big chase as the spin twins of DD – Imran Tahir and Amit Mishra – took charge. That was the IPL 2015 Match 21 at the Feroz Shah Kotla in a nutshell, with a stellar all-round performance from the Delhi Daredevils earning them a third win in IPL 2015, and crucially their first win in ten matches overall at their home ground.
Put into bat by MI, DD, overcame the loss of Mayank Agarwal in the first over, with Iyer and Duminy allying for 154 runs in 16.1 overs – the highest partnership for any wicket in IPL 2015 – to help the Delhi Daredevils to 190/4 in 20 overs. The reply was not much of a reply really as MI could only manage 153 for nine, to crash to a 37-run defeat, their fifth in six matches in the IPL this season.
Iyer (83, 56b, 7x4, 5x6) and Duminy (78 n.o., 50b, 3x4, 6x6) were both quite brilliant with the bat for DD, playing good cricketing shots, while ensuring those bad balls, and not-so-bad-balls as well, were put away, with quite a bit of them – 11 in total from the duo – going over the ropes.
When you put on such a big partnership and that too in pretty quick time, a big total is inevitable, and even of the Mumbai Indians did really well to pull things back a little in the final couple of overs to keep DD to under 200, that 191 target was always going to be a tall order.
It only got even more difficult when Lendl Simmons got out early to a quite spectacular catch from Duminy, who ran back from mid-on before diving to his right to hang onto a blinder. Parthiv Patel smashed a few boundaries and gave MI hope of a solid platform, but another good catch, this time from Imran Tahir, sent him back to the dugout, leaving Rohit Sharma with it all to do.
With Unmukt Chand also unable to provide any kind of impetus, it was all about Rohit and Kiron Pollard, but the Daredevils, knowing the weakness against the slower ball for the big West Indian, played with three spinners – Shahbaz Nadeem joining Amit Mishra and Imran Tahir – and one of those spinners, Mishra (4-0-32-2), did the trick.
Nathan Coulter-Nile then picked up the vital wicket of Rohit (30, 24b, 2x6), just when he was trying to cut loose, before Tahir (4-0-22-3) ended the match with three wickets in four balls to regain that Purple Cap for the top wicket-taker in IPL 2015.
Get Delhi Daredevils vs Mumbai Indians Highlights HERE and HERE
