Fifties from Suryakumar Yadav and Quinton de Kock powered Mumbai Indians to a 5-wicket win against Delhi Capitals in the battle of the heavyweights on Sunday. With this win, MI cemented their place at the top of the points table. Delhi Capitals made a comeback in the match after dismissing Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya in quick succession but Pollard and Kishan produced brilliant knocks to help their team dethrone Delhi to become the table-toppers.
Chasing 163 runs to become table-toppers, Mumbai Indians got a slow start from first over of Rabada. Nortje joined him from the other end and gives him good company. MI openers Rohit Sharma and Quinton de Kock knew they did not have a daunting target to chase but still they were being watchful for first few overs.
Rohit Sharma was batting sensibly without playing some aggressive strokes but the sensational opener had to depart as he failed to get a four on the leg side. The current highest wicket-taker in IPL 2020, Kagiso Rabada took a comfortable catch off Axar Patel's delivery to send back the MI skipper.
After losing Rohit early in the game, Quinton de Kock smacked Anrich Nortje for two sixes in the sixth over to end the powerplay at 44 for loss of one wicket. The South African hard-hitting batsman was batting at almost the strike-rate of 150 and helped Mumbai go past fifty-run mark in the sixth over.
MI were coasting towards the victory target of 163 with De Kock scoring a 33-ball half-century. Ashwin dropped Surya Kumar Yadav, but then in the next ball managed to gets rid of de Kock for 53. Ishan Kishan joined Surya in the middle at the halfway mark with MI 78 after loss of two wickets.
Surya and Kishan kept the scoreboard ticking. Both the middle-order batsmen looked to grab the opportunity of powering their team to a win after getting a good start from De Kock.
Suryakumar was on the move as he kept on hitting fours and sixes to help MI reach 116 for 2 after 14 overs, needing 47 runs from 36 balls to leapfrog DC to number one position in points table. However, Kagiso Rabada got rid of Surya (32-ball 53), three balls later he scored his ninth IPL fifty.
Birthday boy Hardik Pandya was the next man in but had to depart for a duck, courtesy a beauty from Marcus Stoinis. A great catch from Axar Patel departed Ishant Kishan for 28 to give Rabada his second wicket of the night.
In the end, Krunal Pandya and Kieron Pollard scored the winnings to help their team win the game by 5 wickets.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma-skipper unchanged MI XI lost the toss and DC opted to bat first. Ajinkya Rahane was included in the playing XI f or the first time in the tournament and Alex Carey made his IPL 2020 debut. Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw walked out to open the innings for their team with Boult ready to bowl the opening over the match.
A solid fifty from senior opener Shikhar Dhawan propelled Delhi Capitals to a respectable 162/4 against heavyweights Mumbai Indians on Sunday. Dhawan and Iyer starting to rebuild the innings after facing early loss in form of Rahane and Shaw. The duo stitched together a solid 85-run partnership before the latter departed in the 15th over.