IPL 2021 | MI vs DC: Hits & Flops as daunting Delhi push defending champions to the brink

Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals were the best two sides in the last edition of the Indian Premier League played in the UAE last year, but every time the Capitals faced the Rohit Sharma’s men, they were routed and that kind of showed the gap between the sides, despite being one position apart from each other.

When Ravichandran Ashwin smashed Krunal Pandya for a six on the very first ball of the final over, they did a double over Mumbai this year and Capitals’ coach Ricky Ponting was ecstatic and pumping his feast. His animated celebration spoke volumes of how much the wins over the Mumbai side mattered to the Capitals, who had a sort of stain on their reputation.

We’ll analyse the best and the worst performances of the night between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians

Hits

Avesh Khan

When the Capitals preferred Avesh Khan over Umesh Yadav and Ishant Sharma at the start of the ongoing edition of the IPL, there were murmurs on the reasons the Capitals were betting on a young Indian pacer at the expense of an experienced duo.

12 games deep into the season, with 21 wickets, the pacer has repaid the faith and has gone on to become the “most improved player” in the Capitals squad in the eyes of coach Ponting. His numbers this season would make any legend of the format feel proud and he has become an indispensable part of an all-strength bowling attack.

On the day against the Mumbai Indians, he was tasked to stop the opening pair of Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock and the Mumbai skipper looked in ominous touch on the first few balls.

Rohit has been a ferocious puller of the short ball and Avesh too was not unaware of his strength, which also has been his weakness this year. He lured Rohit with the back of length deliveries outside off before testing the half mark of the pitch and the batsman could not resist the bet. To be fair to Rohit, the shot was on, but it was just that Avesh had caught him cramped and beaten for pace.

His next over was equally impressive against Suryakumar Yadav and de Kock to end the first spell with a bowling figure of 2-0-7-1. The reading of the bowling looked impressive even by that point but there was more on offer from the strong Indian quick.

He returned with the second spell in the 16th over and once again he was all over the Pandya brothers (Krunal and Pandya) at the crease in that over. He conceded just one run in his third over.

His best was yet to come and came with his best delivery of the day on the very first ball of his final over. Hardik was setting up to play him over the leg side by trying to pick the line. Avesh was hustling and getting a good pace to work with and he produced a searing yorker that also swung late in the air to pass through the gap between his two legs and hit the stumps. If he could only limit Mumbai’s ambitions in his first over, he killed Mumbai’s ambitions in his final over by picking up two big wickets giving just seven runs.

He finished the game 4-0-15-3 and the words of Ponting who described Avesh in high praise during the interview midway through the game was vindicated by the end of the first innings itself.

Axar Patel

Since his inception in international cricket and the IPL, Axar Patel has always been looked at through the prism of Ravindra Jadeja, whom he was always competing with if he had to dream big. However, the left-hander started to turn the corner in the last couple of years and the year 2021 looks like to be the year he would unlock all his potential.

Hence, when India picked him for the upcoming T20 World Cup despite the presence of Jadeja, there was no surprise in the views of people who follow cricket religiously.

The Capitals were aware of de Kock’s frailties against spin and Pant disobeyed the match up game to throw the ball to Axar against the South African left-hander. After a sluggish start, he was eager to attack spinners, but Axar did not offer him the opportunity to score on the leg side. A wide delivery that dragged de Kock into playing an uppish drive that found Anrich Nortje at the short third man was the proof of Axar’s willingness to purchase wicket by flummoxing batsmen.

From the other side, Suryakumar was going all guns blazing against Ravichandran Ashwin. However, he could not get along comfortably against Axar and frustratingly got out on a low full toss that dipped on him.

He was on the money in all his third over and in the final over removed the only solid bloc of Mumbai batting in Saurabh Tiwary in his final over of the day to asphyxiate Mumbai in the company of Avesh Khan.

Shreyas Iyer

Shreyas Iyer has been criticised a lot in the recent past for his fear of throwing the wicket away and batting decisively to attack only when it’s needed. However, on the day against Mumbai, the Capitals desperately needed him to fulfil the job of an “anchor” perfectly while they were not chasing a lot of runs and that preservation of wickets was a bigger and tougher challenge.

He walked out to bat in the fifth over Steve Smith was castled by Nathan Coulter-Nile and there was a task on his and Rishabh Pant’s hand if the Capitals were to win the game.

He batted with immense passion and did not play ambitious shots while Pant was going for all money from the other end. Maybe, the Capitals were trying to play both attacking and sensible games simultaneously and had assigned suitable tasks to both Iyer and Pant.

Pant perished in the process and left the ground when the Capitals were far away from the target. However, Iyer was calm as a cucumber and backed his methods all the way through with the belief that if he will be there till the end, the target would be achieved.

Iyer has gone through a lot in the last few months and playing innings of such substance establishes his mental strength as a player which makes a serious difference in crunch moments and big tournaments such as the IPL. 

He was the captain of the Capitals last year when they were repetitively annihilated by Mumbai in the last season and hence playing a calm and assuring innings to take the Capitals over the line against Mumbai would have tasted much sweeter to him.

Flops

Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma was in form of his life in the Test series against England his mastery with the bat would have given huge confidence to the Mumbai Indians ahead of the second phase of the IPL in UAE.

The result however has been disappointing, to say the least, both for Rohit, the captain and also the batsman. He has laboured to get his timing right on slow pitches of Sharjah and UAE.

On the day against the Capitals though, he was looking in magnificent touch with the bat as he despatched Nortje on the very first ball of the game with signature timing off his bat. He was looking to attack the pacers and turned out, he was attempting to throw pacers off their mark once too often and ultimately, in a big surprise, was beaten by in pace by Avesh Khan.

Rohit has not scored 400 runs in the last couple of seasons but his lack of runs was masked by the brilliant run of form shown by the Mumbai side. He was also on and off the field with frequent injuries but now as the Mumbai Indians are walking on thin ice and could well be knocked out of the tournament when all his teammates are out of form, his failures with the bat are becoming more and more glaring and unceremonious.

Krunal Pandya

Krunal Pandya came out to bat when Kieron Pollard was dismissed by Anrich Nortje on the first ball of the 15th over and the left-hander was all at sea against the Proteas pacer on the next five balls of the day. 

He struggled to get off the mark and could open his account only on the 8th ball he faced. It was his and his brother’s struggle against Nortje and Avesh in the 15th and 17th over that choked the Mumbai batting when it should have been on the path of a flier.

However, Hardik opened up his shoulder quickly enough in the next over but Krunal’s limitations as a batsman were ripped all open in the last phase of the game. He could neither get out nor hit out against immaculate Delhi pacers and only a miscalculation of allotment by Pant and over-ambitious flighted delivery by Ashwin, that he smashed out of the park on the final ball of the innings, made his score looks better than it actually was.

The Capitals were desperate to win big in order to strengthen their position on the points table and narrow the run rate gap with the Super Kings. They could not manage to do that but achieved a win that has all but sealed a top-two spot on the points table.

On the other hand, the defending champions, Mumbai Indians have compounded their issues in a big way and will need to win both their games along with reliance on other teams to lose their games to qualify to the next stage of the competition.