IPL 2020 | MI vs DC: What Experts said as clinical Mumbai go past the ‘Delhi’ gate with ease

Supposed to be the best contest of the tournament so far, the matchup between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians turned out to be rather anti-climatic as the defending champions thumped the table-toppers by five wickets.

The game was already finished by the 15th over of the second innings when Suryakumar Yadav added crucial runs with both Quinton de Kock and Ishan Kishan to take his team near the target. Chasing a modest target of 163, Mumbai were 130/3 after 15^th over with just 33 needed from 30 balls. But the game didn’t quite end in easily as the lower order Mumbai batsmen almost made a mess of it before a Krunal Pandya four clinched it for the Rohit Sharma led side.

Earlier choosing to bat first after winning the toss, Delhi couldn’t quite get to a total that they would have liked on the Abu Dhabi track. Hampered by injury to Rishabh Pant and therefore change being made in the successful playing 11 with last match hero Shimron Hetmyer being pulled out, Delhi could only score 162 in their allotted overs.

Shikhar Dhawan was criticised for slow batting as he hit a 69 off 52 balls while Marcus Stoinis, the man in form for the Capitals got run out, giving Mumbai spinners a chance to block the flow of runs and they did it with Krunal leading the way.

Captains' Viewpoints

Speaking on the occasion of the post-match ceremony, winning captain Rohit Sharma said, “The kind of cricket we are playing gives us a lot of confidence. It's important to have momentum with us, and it was a perfect day for us, getting those crucial two points.”

Pointing out the mistake of not being able to close in the game well, Rohit said, “Clinical with the bat, but not so much towards the end. We need one set batsman to finish off the game in general. “ Saying that he doesn’t want to ‘point fingers because chasing has been difficult in this tournament’, the 33-year-old asked the batsmen to buck up.

Underscoring the importance of a long and quick partnership in the 20 over format, the Mumbaikar said, “We need to come out and play good cricket and keep a calm head while chasing. It's important to have partnerships and we did that today, which got us over the line.”

On the other hand, it was only the second experience for Shreyas Iyer to be on the losing side in this year’s IPL. Reacting to the loss Iyer admitted that his team lagged behind in terms of runs. “I would say 10-15 short, 170-175 on the board would have looked completely different.”

Iyer then further clarified as to what could have been the possible plan if Marcus Stoinis, the all-rounder had not got run out. “We really missed out when Stoinis got out, he was hitting the ball really well and also seeing the ball like a football, that was the main error that we did and something that we really need to work on,” he said.

“Overall they outplayed us in all the departments. We need to work on our mindsets before the next game,” expected the captain.

The 25-year-old praised spinners although expecting them to take more wickets. He also complained that the pitch became more batting-friendly in the second innings. “I thought the spinners were bowling well as the ball was coming onto the bat, it wasn't stopping as it was in the first innings. If we could have squeezed in two more wickets after the powerplay we would have been on top,” said Iyer.

“There are still certain elements we have to work and we will use the break to work on that,” concluded Iyer after having confirmed that it would take at least one week for Rishabh Pant to come back to playing cricket.

Expert Opinion

For Experts, it was a field day as apart from cricket, Rafael Nadal had won his 20^th grand slam, the joint-most by any male Tennis star. Sticking to cricket, most of the experts believed that Delhi Capitals were a few runs short in their innings.

Giving his valuable point on this, veteran analyst Harsha Bhogle said that there were a lot of positives for Mumbai Indians from this game and foremost of them is the fact that there are different match-winners in every match.

Cricketer turned commentator, Aakash Chopra raised yet another valid point saying that senior Mumbai batsman Suryakumar Yadav deserves to play for India.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir found his new love in Suryakumar, who batted magnificently to score 53 off just 32 balls.

Veteran cricket expert Boria Majumdar called the dismissal of Stoinis as the most crucial moment for the Delhi Capitals where they lost 10-15 runs because of his run-out, as admitted by the captain Shreyas Iyer as well.

Senior Sports journalist Gaurav Kalra, known for his witty tweets, entertained fans once again with his humor as he took a cheeky dig at Shikhar Dhawan who played a lot slower than he usually does.

For both the Mumbai Indians and Capitals, it was a game to learn a lot from. While the Shreyas Iyer led team would be up against Rajasthan Royals in the next encounter while Mumbai will face Kolkata Knight Riders.

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IPL 2020 | MI vs DC: Suryakumar, de Kock fifties script Mumbai's homecoming to the top

Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 162/4 in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 69*, Shreyas Iyer 42; Krunal Pandya 2-26) lost to Mumbai Indians 166/5 in 19.4 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 53, Quinton de Kock 53; Kagiso Rabada 2-28) by 5 wickets. Mumbai Indians hinged on theatrical fifties from Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock to gun down an innocuous 163 against Delhi Capitals in the 27th game of the Indian Premier League. The defending champions usurped DC to the summit with ten points in seven games in what was a rather lopsided encounter at Abu Dhabi on Sunday, October 11. Delhi hold the aces despite Quinny blow De Kock channelized his silken belligerence after Rohit Sharma fell prey to Axar Patel's Midas touch, dragging a half-hearted slog to cow corner. Besides pinning Ravichandran Ashwin to the mat, he salivated at the very glimpse of anything marginally short of length from the pace cartel, uncorking his trademark pick-ups over fine leg to swag a 33-ball half-century. Resurging for a second burst, Ashwin gobbled a straightforward return catch to present Suryakumar Yadav a lease of life, albeit de Kock top-edging a sweep to deep backward square the next ball balanced the equation for good measure. DC had a nice little opportunity forthwith to grab the match by the collar, though Ajinkya Rahane inflicting a direct hit at the wrong end resulted in Ishan Kishan surviving to see the face of another delivery. Surya arrives to the party Yadav stayed the course alright, kneeling down on his haunches to smack Patel for consecutive fours before unravelling his version of the scoop-flick off Kagiso Rabada to earn fifty. It looked as if MI would rollick to a plain-sailing triumph at that stage, but DC had a few harsh words in store. Rabada shut the lid on Yadav's fun as a back-peddling Shreyas Iyer pouched his ugly swat. Hardik Pandya nicking behind for a silver duck off Marcus Stoinis lent its fair share of drama to the topsy-turvy state of affairs. It was a case of one shot too many for Kishan, who crammed a slash down sweeper cover's throat to walk back for a quickfire 28. Anrich Nortje held his nerve to yield a miserly penultimate over as the requirement lurched to 7 off the final. Thoughts of a potential nail-biter would have barely crossed the mind when Stoinis extended some down-leg garbage first up, as Krunal Pandya helped himself to a no-sweat boundary. The winning runs too blazed from his willow, nudging MI to the familiar territories of the apex. Debutant Rahane flatters to deceive Ajinkya Rahane finally got a piece of the action as Rishabh Pant missed out due to a niggle. Alex Carey had to naturally fill in the boots of the wicketkeeper, with Shimron Hetmyer warming the bench. And the need for Rahane's composure arose rather early as the absence of footwork saw Prithvi Shaw chipping Trent Boult's half-volley to cover. The veteran did show a glimpse of his quality in a couple of handsy square drives but Krunal Pandya's introduction quashed any notions of a fairytale debut. The skiddier trajectory worked wonders as Rahane failed to connect his across-the-line tuck, nabbed plumb for a run-a-ball 15. DC punch below their weight Enforcers Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer then hustled a vibrant 85-run partnership to keep MI at bay. Pinching ones, rotating the strike, sprinting like the wind, dispatching the odd loosener. There was a concerted tempo to their alliance even if the boundaries weren't exactly flowing. However, just when the batsmen were rolling up their sleeves to wreak havoc, left-arm Krunal sent Iyer packing courtesy a tender short-arm jab. Dhawan obtaining his fifty coincided with Marcus Stoinis running himself out in the quest of a non-existent double. The ramifications of the in-form finisher's premature exit can be gauged from the fact that DC condensed a skimp 35 runs in the last four, despite a well-set Dhawan carrying his bat through to march off unbeaten on 69. What's in store next? Silly mistakes jeopardized Delhi Capitals a great deal tonight, and they'd eye rectification in their next tussle against Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday, October 14. Mumbai Indians, the newly crowned table-toppers, have four days to rest on their laurels before they engage into conflict with Kolkata Knight Riders on Friday, October 16.

IPL 2020 | DC vs MI: Hits and Flops as Rohit's Mumbai overpowers Delhi Capitals

The match between the Mumbai Indians and the Delhi Capitals was the clash of table-toppers of the ongoing season and Rohit’s side proved its might on the night and proved to be too classy for the Delhi capitals. Delhi was not awful in its performance and was done in by the sheer pedigree of the Mumbai team. Here we dissect the best and worst performances of the night Hits Krunal Pandya Krunal has been chipping in with valuable contributions with the bat and key wickets in the middle overs for Mumbai in this season but on the night when the pair of Trent Boult and James Pattinson failed to pick too many wickets with the new ball, Krunal was into the wickets column very early in his spell. He trapped Ajinkya Rahane stuck on backfoot inside the crease to provide Mumbai a big breakthrough as Rahane was looking in ominous touch and had hit a couple of his signature drives through offside. He came back in the middle phase of the game and scalped out the big fish in the form of Delhi Capitals’ captain Shreyas Iyer who was looking well set to take the game away from Mumbai. Krunal has been a linchpin of the Mumbai side over the past few years and Rohit has used him intelligently as a horse for the course. Mumbai needed a calm head to get the job done while chasing after Raba got the better of Isha Kishan in the 18th over and once again Krunal put his hands up to steer the team away from any chance of hiccup. He remained not out till the end and fittingly hit the winning runs by pulling Marcus Stoinis over the infield. Quinton de Kock Quinton regained his lost touch a bit late in the season but there has been looking back since his crucial knock against the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The target the Delhi had given for the Mumbai Indians to chase was not a stiff one but it needed a batsman to set the platform so that the side does not have to deal with what the CSK batsmen have been facing so far in the season. Rohit went cheaply in a rather uncharacteristic fashion but Quinton was composed and was unfazed about the quality of the Delhi’s pace bowling. Quinton looked in his explosive form and was particularly severe on anything short bowled to him and he let his intentions known to his fellow countrymen Anarchy Nortje, hitting him for two huge sixes off his rising deliveries. Although he got out immediately after scoring a fifty the foundation he had built was good enough for the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan to shut the door for any chance of an upset from the Delhi Capitals. Suryakumar Yadav Suryakumar has been known for his touch stroke playing and the commentator Ian Bishop who was calling the game compared his batting style to that of Sri Lankan great and the head coach of Mumbai Indians Mahela Jayawardena. Suryakumar Yadav has been piling on the runs and in the last few seasons, he has owned the stage of the IPL. The targets in excess of 160s have not been easy for teams to chase so far in this season but the ease with which he guided the team to ultimately win it easily was reminiscent of the kind of batsman he has developed into. He has all shots in his arsenal and made good use of all of that against the Delhi spinners. His batting style and tactic against R Aswin was one of the highlights of the batting innings from the Mumbai camp. Suryakumar is one of the widely-discussed cricket in the IPL and he is doing no harm to his chances to make it big and seal a place in the Indian T-20 squad with a performance like the one against the Delhi Capitals. Flops Prithvi Shaw Prithvi Shaw has shown good form in the IPL 2020 so far and the DC team management would have hoped for a similar return from the swashbuckling opener. The Capitals were without Rishabh Pant and hence a lot was riding on Prithvi Shaw as an in-form batsman of the side. However, the challenge was bigger than he had faced in the season so far and he had to attempt both aggressive strokes playing along with conserving his wicket. Sadly, for the Capitals, he could do nothing and the class of Boult with the new ball exposed the weakness in his technique once again. The replays and side by side comparison with the way of his dismissal and how Ajinkya Raahen played in a similar way explained the flaw in his technique where his head is falling over and subsequently his batting is losing proper access to the balls coming into him. Prithvi Shaw is young and promising but he would do well to realise that his journey as a great player will only begin when he starts to conquer quality bowlers. Hardik Pandya Hardik has not bowled in the season so far and is playing as a specialist batsman and hence the responsibility on his shoulder is bigger than it used to be. He has played a few good cameos in this season so far but has not been able to go big and score long innings like he was doing in the last season of the IPL. Hardik has developed a lot as a batsman and he will have to show his class a specialist batsman to stake claim a place in the side purely on his batting might, something he lacks in critics’ eyes. Hardik is too good a player with the bat in hand to be classified as a dasher and hence the match against the Delhi Capitals was a golden opportunity to stamp his maturity as a batsman. He got out playing a nothing shot on an innocuous Marcus Stoinis’ delivery and that gave a sniff to the Shreyas Iyer’s side. Thankfully for the team, Krunal and Pollard got them home but Hardik missed a chance to show his composure. Delhi Capitals were not abysmal with the bat or with ball but the sheer depth in the Mumbai indians camp weighed them down. The batsmen were choked by Boult to start with the new ball and they could not recover with batsmen faking to convert their good start. The bowling tried its best but again Mumbai’s batting might was too strong to be breached by the bowlers who were also not helped by fielders who were having a definitie off day in the field.

IPL 2020| SRH vs RR: What experts said as Tewatia, Riyan Parag snatch win from Sunrisers' hands

The Rajasthan royals broke the losing streak on the back of a brilliant partnership between Riyan Parag and Rahul Tewatia. Both the batsmen were smart to pick their moments to attack while preserving their wickets. It was a masterful chase scripted by two young guns of the Royals camp after the star-studded top order failed once again to give the team a steady start. Captains’ take The winning captain Steve Smith had high praise for Riyan Parag who showed immense composure while he also accepted the failure of the top order. He also commended Rahul Tewatia for taking his game to a next level when the pressure situations come for the team. The large size of the boundary was also on Smith’s mind as he expressed satisfaction over a hard-fought win. “I thought Rahul and Riyan as a young kid showed great composure. Stokesy obviously didn't come off tonight. Our top four didn't fire, but today showed our depth. With Stokesy back it brings a nice balance to us. He's been impressive, hasn't he? Just thrives in pressure situations. You bring in his bowling and fielding to it and he's a terrific player for us. I don't think it was the easiest wicket and the square boundaries are quite big too. So great composure from Parag. Proud that he could come back in and score some runs straight up” Smith said to the host broadcaster Star in the post-match show. On the other hand, the SRH captain David Warner was quite optimistic even after the loss and defended his decision to hold back Rashid Khan for one over in the last part of the innings. Warner said that the decision to hold one over off Rashid has been an old one and that the duo of Tewatia and Parag played exceptional cricket to beat them on the strategic front. Warner also rued the wrong choice of lengths made by the bowlers in the last three overs when the Royals were needing runs in excess of 13 per over. “Couldn't get across the line there but it happens in cricket. [Holding Rashid back] We've done it in the past, we've held him back and tried to nullify some runs, but these two played exceptionally well. Tonight we probably - we didn't miss-execute, but some of the decisions at the top of the mark weren't there. And we probably bowled the wrong ball at the time. Lots of positives coming out and we'll take it on to the next game. We need to work out as these wickets get tired, how to bat through the first 6 and the middle, and then assess with our bowling,” Warner said to the host broadcaster after the match. Experts’ take Cricket expert Harsha Bhogle was in awe of both Tewatia and Riyan Parag. He expressed his happiness over Parag converting his ‘undeniable talent’ into match-turning performances for his team. Veteran cricket journalist Sambit Bal was of the opinion that Rahul Tewatia has nothing short of a marquee player for the Rajasthan Royals team in the IPL 2020. He reminded Twitter that in a team that has four superstars who are yet to win a game for the side, Rahul Tewatia has already produced two match-winning performances in the three wins for the team in the season so far. Former English captain Michael Vaughan was awestruck by the level of cricket being played in the IPL and he could not hide his love for the league. However, his tweet could not wipe off the skepticism he had of the Royals and Shane Warne did not miss in reminding him about the Royals’ capabilities in the ongoing season of the IPL.

IPL 2020| SRH vs RR: Hits and Flops as Rahul Tewatia does it again for the Royals

Finally, after a wait of so many days, the Rajasthan Royals tasted success in the Indian Premier League 2020. The team looked out of the chase midway but the Sunrisers had a final hurdle of going past Rahul Tewatia which they could not till the end and lost the game. Riyan Parag finally arrived in the tournament and stitched a match winning partnership with Tewatia that sailed the Royals' ships against the Sunrisers. Here we pick the best and the worst performances from the game. Hits Rahul Tewatia The kind of form the Rajasthan Royals had shown in the last few matches and the start the top order provided in the chase, they needed a superhero to take them over the line and who better than Rahul Tewatia t6o be that hero and rise to the occasion. Tewatia was slow and steady to start with and the match started looking out of Royals’ control. But, like in one of the early games, Tewatia switched himself on and with that, the shots started flowing from the bat that earned him a big name very early in this season. With the Royals needing 36 off the last three overs including one of Rashid Khan, Tewatia showed his full range of shots that included reverse sweeps and an inside-out drive over extra cover to smash Aghan spinner for three boundaries in a row. The momentum was now with him and the Royals and he never allowed the Sunrisers to come back in the game afterward. Riyan Parag Riyan Parag was under huge pressure coming into the match against the Sunrisers but the team management kept on backing him based on his talent. The time was nigh for him to come good and repay the faith when the team desperately needed to win this game to get back on winning ways. He came to the crease when Uthappa was trapped lbw by Rashid Khan and the young man held his composure and allowed Rahul Tewatia to win the show while he was chipping in with few boundaries here and there. He put his foot on the accelerator just at the right time from the last ball of the 16th over when he created a Khaleel Ahmed’s short ball for a 97-meter six over mid-wicket. He never looked back from that stroke as the next over from Sandeep Sharma saw Parag in a beast mode. Parag took him for six and two boundaries in the 17th over. Rahul Tewatia took care of the required run rate in the next two overs and Parag quickly switched to the supporting role to Tewatia. When the match was at the deciding juncture and Royals needed two off the last two deliveries, Khaleel erred in his length and Parag was too good to miss out and he deposited the full toss over the extra cover boundary to break into a special celebration where he showed his footwork in Bihu dancing. Manish Pandey Manish Pandey was not getting big runs at the number three position for the Sunrisers and that was putting a lot of pressure on the opening duo of Jonny Bairstow and David Warner along with Kane Williamson who bats just a position lower than him. He has shown good striking form so far in the season but was not quite able to take the momentum for a longer period of time. He corrected all that in the match against the Rajasthan Royals and built a strong foundation with captain David Warner. Pandey’s 44-ball-54 was filled with his signature shots such as sixes down the ground against spinners and walking drives against acres. Manish Pandey showed good form but maybe he failed to increase the tempo of his innings that allowed the Royals to come back in the game but after the loss of Bairstow halfway into the power play, Manish’s resilience was important if the Sunrisers were to have any chance of challenging the Royals batting line up. Flops Ben Stokes The Rajasthan Royals waited for such a long time for Stokes to come back and balance their playing XI and a lot was talked about the improvements in performances he will bring into the Rajasthan team. Ben Stokes has a history of slow starts and it remained true for his IPL 2020 journey as the star English all-rounder failed to leave any mark on the game either with the bat or ball. He was asked to bowl for only one over by captain Steve Smith and he never looked threatening for the SRH’s batsmen. The southpaw was asked to open the innings for the Royals in order to bring an X-factor into the top order while Smith will remain at the number 3. Stokes tried to tee off and attacked Khaleel Ahmed for a four down the ground but his stay at the crease was short-lived as he tried to play a short of a length delivery from Khaleel while rooted in the crease. The ball took the inside edge and hit the stump and ended Stokes’ highly-talked but ineffective participation in his first match of the IPL 2020. Jos Buttler On paper, Jos Buttler is the best T-20 batsman in the Royals’ batting line up and he has also been assigned the role of the biggest impact player in the batting order. A lot of Royals’ fortunes hinge on the level of Buttler’s performances, but the best of Buttler has not been seen in this season except for his explosive innings against the Mumbai Indians. Buttler’s role was much more crucial in today's match as Ben Stokes had departed early and he was also involved in the run out of Steve Smith. Buttler had to go big and for a longer period of time to win the game for the Royals but it was not to be for Buttler and he fell victim to a short and incoming delivery off Khaleel Ahmed. Rajasthan Royals have finally broken the shackles and tasted success after such a long time but the questions about a top-order heavy team remain relevant. Stokes was slotted at the top order who could have been used as an enforcer in the middle overs. Smith would be relieved the team got over the line but the Royals need to get their acts together if they want to make this win a longer winning streak.