Teams are posting 250-plus totals with alarming regularity and they are being chased down quite comfortably. Punjab Kings shattered record the other night and that would have been on the mind of Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya when he opted to bowl first against Delhi Capitals in their second meeting of IPL 2024, this time at the Arun Jaitely Stadium.
MI gave DC bowlers quite a thrashing but it wasn’t enough as chasing 258, they were kept to 247/9 as the hosts recorded their fifth win of the season to move to the fifth spot in the standings.
DC’s win was built on Jake Fraser-McGurk’s blistering knock in the afternoon followed by Rasikh Salam’s superb bowling figures of 3/34 later.
MI made an impressive start to the chase with Ishan Kishan dispatching Khaleel Ahmed for a hat-trick of fours but they lost Rohit Sharma early with the opener out after a scratchy run-a-ball eight. Suryakumar Yadav began ominously delighting the crowd with his trademark flick over deep square leg region for a six. MI finished the Powerplay at a wobbling 65/3.
Ishan then mishit one from Mukesh Kumar to throw away a promising start on 20. Khaleel then slipped in an off-cutter to outfox Suryakumar Yadav (26) forcing him to tamely hit the final delivery of Powerplay towards Shai Hope for an easy catch at covers.
DC Rishabh Pant brought in his two left-arm spinners but Pandya waded through Kuldeep Yadav to clobber him four three fours and a six. Tilak Varma found his range with a six over long-on followed by a reverse sweep for four off Axar Patel which also raised the fifty of his partnership with Pandya for the third fourth wicket.
With the pair of Pandya and Tilak repairing the damage MI endured in the Powerplay, Rishabh Pant turned to Rasikh Salam and his introduction left MI struggling. After a tidy first over in which DC ended up losing a review for a caught-behind appeal against Pandya, Salam took two wickets in his next including that of the MI skipper on 46 and Nehal Wadhera on four.
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Tilak then took over the reins and raised a 25-ball half-century with a flurry of boundaries as Kuldeep continued to concede boundaries.
David warmed up with a six off Khaleel Ahmed and then when Salam had sent down another quiet over, made up for it by hitting two sixes and a four off the first three deliveries of the over of Mukesh.
However, Mukesh had the last laugh when he trapped David lbw on 37.
Mohammed Nabi and Piyush Chawla hit a six each in the 19th over to leave MI needing 25 from the final but the run out of Tilak on 62 off the very first delivery all but sealed the deal for DC.
This was after rising Australia star Fraser-McGurk (84 off 27) led a superlative effort from DC batters as they posted 257/4 – their highest team total in IPL history.
Fraser-McGurk capitalized on the road that is the pitch at the Arun Jaitley Stadium and drove his Ferrari at breakneck speed after his team was put in to bat first under the baking Delhi sun. The first over, given to Luke Wood, disappeared for 19 runs, all from the bat of the young opener who seemed intent on bashing everything that was sent in his direction.
A full delivery first up was flicked away for four before the second whizzed past Wood in his follow-through for four as well. The third was flicked with disdain for the first of his six sixes. A four more before the Frasker-McGurk kept the strike to himself with a single.
Such was the zone Fraser-McGurk found himself in that he didn’t shy away from greeting Jasprit Bumrah, the most economical bowler (minimum 10 overs bowled) thus far this IPL, with a six over long-on. The no-ball hooter kept the decibel level high and the resulting free-hit was bashed past the bowler for four runs. Bumrah’s first over of the afternoon went for 18 runs.
Enter Nuwan Thushara and he too was creamed for 18 runs.
With his new-ball pacers being thrashed all across the park, Hardik Pandya turned to the spin of Piyush Chawla but Fraser-McGurk was unrelenting. He belted a four and a six off the veteran’s first over and raised a 15-ball fifty for the second time in what is his debut season.
With DC sprinting to 69/0 in four overs, Pandya inserted himself into the attack but the out-of-form MI skipper fared worse than his peers did. 20 runs, all from Jake-McGurk’s blade, from his first six deliveries.
Bumrah was summoned back and the maverick ended the Powerplay with a quiet over, allowing just three runs. But the mayhem of the first five overs meant DC milked PP for 92 runs – their highest ever in the phase and the fifth best overall in the competition’s history.
In between the carnage, there were frequent discussions between Pandya and Rohit as the two exchanged notes on the field placements and bowling plans to plug the leakage which weren’t yielding the desired results.
With the fielders now spread far and wide as PP ended, Pandya was back in action, and this time both Abhishek Porel and Fraser-McGurk smashed him out of attack while sharing 21 runs in the over.
Chawla finally put an end to Fraser-McGurk’s assault when he was cramped for room while launching a googly towards midwicket where Mohammed Nabi took an easy catch with the DC opening partnership ending at 114. Fraser-McGurk headed back to the dressing after a blistering 27-ball 84.
Amazingly, 80 off his runs came in boundaries that included 11 fours and six sixes.
Soon Porel (36) was out too while forcing the issue when he stepped out to Nabi only to get an edge with wicketkeeper Ishan Kishan taking a catch and also breaking the stumps.
Shai Hope played a handy cameo. He swept, biffed and flicked his way to five sixes in an entertaining 17-ball 41 to keep DC’s push towards a big total in the middle overs.
In walked Rishabh Pant and the crowd geared up for his showdown with Bumrah. The MI ace strayed down the leg side and Pant flicked it away for a six. However, Bumrah had the last laugh as he, with some help from Rohit, put an end to his blossoming innings on 29 in his next over.
The slog overs belonged to Tristan Stubbs who was the latest DC batter to add to Wood’s (0/68) nightmare as he scooped, reverse-scooped and pulled the left-arm pacer for five fours and a six in the 18th over.
Bumrah did his job to keep DC batters quiet in the 19th over but from the final over, DC added 17 runs to their total and became the sixth team in IPL 2024 to breach the 250-run mark.
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