IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: Hits and Flops as Capitals pull the plug on Mumbai's endgame on slow pitches

Breaking their unstoppable series of one-sided losses on all the four occasions they met last year, the Delhi Capitals defeated the Mumbai Indians by six runs to go second in the points table of the IPL 2021.

The Delhi Capitals were coming off from Mumbai where the pitch had a lot more pace than the ones at the Chepauk in Chennai. 

On the other hand, the Mumbai Indians have been there since the start and have had adapted terrifically for slower and lower pitches and defended scores around 150 to win two back to back games.

The Capitals needed 15 runs from the last two overs and Kieron Pollard, the filling in stand-in captain for Rohit Sharma had bowled out Trent Boult. Hence, the onus was on Jasprit Bumrah to squeeze the Capitals like he has been doing in the last few games. Turned out, he was not disciplined in landing his foot and offered two no balls to the Capitals, and Pollard had only five runs to defend from the last over.

Here, we will analyse the best and the worst performance of the night.

Hits

Amit Mishra

Amit Mishra has been the leading wicket-taker among spinners in the 14-year long-running history of the Indian Premier League and second to only Lasith Malinga. The list of spinners in IPL is long and gets added every year with some sort of new talents but Amit Mishra remains the same with his old style of leg-spin bowling where all the success is built upon the ability to turn the ball big. Mishra has had a lethal googly as well and it has contributed to his unchallenged success in the IPL.

In the 151 games before the one against the Mumbai Indians, he had 160 wickets at an astounding average-economy rate combo of 24.35 wickets per run and 7.35 runs per over respectively.

Mishra’s variations have been tough to pick albeit he does not hold the reputation of mystery bowlers such as Sunil Narine and Ajantha Mendis have had. What he has a lot in him is the guile and perceptiveness to pick the brains of batsmen.

Having played on hard surfaces at Wankhede stadium, the Delhi Capitals did not find Mishra fitting into the dynamics of the team combination especially with short boundaries in Mumbai. 

But, maybe, they had their eyes on all games other teams were playing at Chepauk and hence when they started their campaign in Chennai, the move to pick Mishra was a no brainer with the kind of helps spinners have extracted.

Having been aware of Rohit Sharma’s frailties against leg spinners and especially Amit Mishra, who had taken his wicket on six previous occasions, Pant tasked Mishra with the role of stopping the Mumbai Indians skipper from what was becoming a game-threatening innings.

The start was not good as Rohit found a single on the first ball. His partner Suryakumar Yadav has been carrying his own pitch in the last few seasons in the IPL and he attempted to claim supremacy over Mishra.

Pant held back Mishra after an expensive first over and brought him back after two overs once Yadav was sent back to the pavilion.

Rohit appeared to be coming at him and took six runs off his first two balls of the next over to put him under pressure. Mishra knew Rohit has not had enough of him and was looking to stamp his authority on the game.

On the fourth ball of the over, Rohit danced down the track to hit him over the top. He allowed Mishra a sighter for what was coming and gave him time to adapt. See for a change, any spinner of this age would be firing the ball to his pads or towards the leg stump to have him stumped. Instead, Mishra never left the leg spinner from his hand and a 79 kmph leg break forced Rohit to drag the ball to an eager long-on fielder.

A very important wicket was found and Rohit became Mishra’s victim for the seventh time in IPL history. The spinner was not finished though and employed the similar tactic of enforcing batsmen reaching out his ever so slow leg-spinning delivery. The target this time was Hardik Pandya and the Mumbai Indians back was broken in a span of three balls.

Halfway through his four-over quota, Mishra’s bowling figure read 17 runs and two wickets. He came back in his third over and flummoxed another Mumbai powerhouse in Kieron Pollard, but the choice of weapon this time was a googly, a deceptive one for the fight it was bowled with. Pollard has been susceptible against leg spinners early in his innings and Pant-Mishra feasted upon this to leave Mumbai reeling at 84/6 at the end of 12 overs.

Pant held Mishra back due to the presence of two left-handers at the crease but it was to be his night. He came back to send back Ishan Kishan in a sheer lucky mode of dismissal and ended up with a fantastic figure of 24/4 from his four overs to clog Mumbai to only 138 runs from 20 overs.

Now, Mishra is just eight wickets away from surpassing Lasith Malinga as the leading wicket-taker in the IPL and it would be fair to say that the goal is well within reach for the leg spinner who must be rated as one of the most under-rated bowlers of this marquee tournament of Indian cricket.

Shimron Hetmyer

It’s quite unusual for a batsman who played just nine-ball to be one of the biggest game-changers of a game. That too when he batted with a strike rate of 155.55.

However, why Hetmyer should be commended is s the fact that he set the template of what teams should have been doing so far in the competition while chasing scores against the Mumbai Indians.

The Mumbai Indians have defended two scores of the around 150-run mark and although they fell short of reaching that optimal level, the bowlers kept them in the game till the first ball of the 20th over.

Hetmyer walked to bat when Rishabh Pant was baffled by a slower delivery from Jasprit Bumrah and the Capitals were on the verge of creating the same harakiri that the Sunrisers and the Knight Riders had created.

At the end of the 17th over by Bumrah, the Capitals needed 22 runs of the last 18 balls including six off Bumrah and the latter fact played in the minds of other teams who had messed up their chasing against the Mumbai Indians.

Hetmyer was in no hurry and capitalised on the boundary scoring opportunity by lifting Boult over cover for four. He took seven runs off Boult and left 15 runs to chase from the last two overs.

The task of taking an early risk was transferred to Lalit Yadav who had already spent a lot of time at the crease. The move paid off and Yadav got a boundary on the very first ball. On the other hand, Hetmyer was calm and assuring to not take any risk against Bumrah like his skipper had done and faltered at. Bumrah faltered with two no-balls and offered him the option of sealing the game with a big six by bowling a full toss. The left-hander was in his cocoon and had calculated that Pollard had already exhausted Boult’s quota for the night and hence the onus of bowling the last over will be taken upon by the skipper himself or Krunal Pandya. 

He put his and his team’s destiny on the last over by not attacking Bumrah. He waited for the opportunity to win the game for his side and on cue, Pollard provided him with a big one of that with a short and wide delivery outside the off stump.

Hetymer’s innings has set a template of chasing scores that are in sight with the required run rate in control as preserving wickets was more critical than taking the game on.

Lalit Yadav

Lalit Yadav is a classical Indian domestic cricket prodigy who has grown up to the stature of an IPL team purely based on his performances in the domestic games.

After showcasing his skills in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier this year, Lalit came into the Delhi Capitals playing XI.

Playing true to their nature of backing youngsters, the Capitals have handed Yadav a longer rope to establish his credentials.

He repaid the faith shown by the team management by playing his role perfectly in the chase against the Mumbai Indians.

He walked out to bat after the fall of Steve smith right after the halfway mark and it was the stage of the game where the Mumbai Indians have had bounced back in the season so far. He found a brilliant partner in Shikhar Dhawan who was the man in the form to take on the bowling attack while he had to ensure there was no collapse of the batting order or any opening for Mumbai to come back in the game.

He never tried to boss the game and played as per the situation until the 19th over after Hetmyer transferred the onus of taking the team home upon himself.

His impeccable patience was rewarded in good fortunes when he attempted to clear Jasprit Bumrah to keep the Capitals ahead of the curve.

Lalit Yadav has shown temperament to play on the big stage and it looks like the Capitals are looking to give him a longer rope.

Flops

Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya came into the 14th edition of the IPL with uncertainty lingering around his back injury. He did not bowl a single delivery in the last edition of the IPL and the story is pretty similar this year as well.

Hence, his place in the team is based on the firepower he offers to the Mumbai Indians batting order. He was able to justify his place and brought immense contributions with the bat to make Mumbai a frightening side to come up against for the rest of seven IPL franchises.

However, his batting numbers have dwindled so far in this season and he has been able to muster only 35 runs from the four games.

In the game against the Capitals, Hardik walked out to bat in the over of Amit Mishra who was getting purchase off the surface.

Rohit was defeated by the slowness of the ball as the right-hander jumped down the track to get an upper hand. Having seen his skipper going down due to slowness of the ball and wider line of attack, Hardik should probably have resisted the temptation of getting into the skins of Amit Mishra.

He tried to lift Mishra over long-on in a manner he has been accustomed to doing in Mumbai but the lack of pace in the pitches at Chepauk neutralised his all-out plans.

Krunal Pandya

Like his brother, Krunal Pandya, too,  has been found out in the four games of this season. The slowness of the pitch has not allowed him to be fluent with the bat at the end overs and the Mumbai Indians have suffered a great deal due to the failures of both him and his brother.

Mumbai have lost two and won two out of the four games this season and none of their lower-order batsmen such as the Pandya brothers and Pollard has been able to crack the Chepauk code.

However, what has compounded the problems for the Mumbai Indians have been the dismal returns for Krunal Pandya, the left-arm spinner and once again his style of bowling has been found out on pitches in Chennai.

Krunal’s bowling is built around reactive tactics to the mode of attack employed by batsmen on any given day, but Rohit needs him to be an enforcer.

In the game against the Capitals, he started well against the duo of Steve Smith and Dhawan before releasing all the pressure built from the other end in his second over by providing Smith with the pace on the ball to work with.

He was not bowled out on a pitch where an opposition spinner took 24/4 in his four overs while his teammates picked up two wickets while giving away only 54 runs from eight overs compared to 17 overs he offered to the Capitals in a chase of 138 runs.

The win would taste sweeter for the Capitals after the decimation they had faced in the two encounters during the league stage and then the first qualifier and the finals of the last edition of the IPL.

On the other hand, Rohit Sharma and the Mumbai side would be looking back at this game where they committed far too many mistakes and the opposition in Capitals were good enough to make them pay for all of them.