#IPL8: #DDvMI

Delhi Daredevils' sixth match was against Mumbai Indians at home. Delhi had won only 2 games out of the 5 games they played. On the other hand Mumbai had won only one match out of their 5 matches. Delhi ended loosing streak of 11 matches in IPL but they had 9 consecutive losses at home. So they wanted to end that loosing streak as well. Mumbai Indians wanted to make winning a habit as they lost their first four matches of the tournament.

Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to field first. Delhi Daredevils were one batsman short in this match as they dropped Manoj Tiwary and brought Nadeem in the team. They wanted to strengthen their bowling attack. McGlenaghan took the new ball against Agarwal and Iyer. McGlenaghan on the third ball of the innings picked up the wicket of Mayank Agarwal. Agarwal was dismissed on 1 for third consecutive time in this IPL. It was once again on Iyer and Duminy to build the Daredevils' innings. Both Agarwal and Duminy steadied the ship first against Malinga and McGlenaghan. Daredevils were 21/1 after 3. In the fourth over Bumrah was brought into the attack and Duminy picked up 14 runs from that over with the help of two maximums. After that Rohit Sharma introduced spin in the powerplay as he brought on Harbhajan Singh to bowl the 5th over. Harbhajan conceded 8 runs in that over and Daredevils were 43/1 after 5. Bumrah was taken off the attack after that over. Last over of powerplay was bowled by Malinga and he bowled a pretty tidy over.

Mumbai Indians kept things tight after the powerplay. Pandya, Pollard and Harbhajan didn't bowl too many freebies till the halfway mark. Daredevils scored only 65 runs off first 10 overs. Best thing was that they didn't loose too many wickets during the first half of the innings. Rohit Sharma brought Bumrah back into the attack in 11th over and this time he conceded 16 runs in an over. Iyer hit him for 2 fours and a six. Iyer brought up his 50 in that over. This young lad has been in prime form this IPL. Bumrah's over gave Delhi the much needed momentum. After that Duminy attacked Pollard in the next over. Duminy hit 2 sixes and a four in that over and that over costed Mumbai 20 runs. Daredevils crossed 100 run mark by the end of 12th over. Then McGlenaghan have 11 runs in 13th and Harbhajan gave 18 runs in 14th over. Duminy and Iyer gave no respect whatsoever to any bowler. They were well set and were hitting the ball hard and long.

It certainly wasn't Bumrah's day. He again conceded 15 runs in the 16th over of the innings. Delhi crossed 150 run mark in that over and was looking good to get close to 200 run mark. Rohit turned to his strike bowler Malinga in the 17th over and Malinga provided the breakthrough to him. Malinga disturbed Iyer's furniture when Iyer tried to play a cheeky shot to Malinga. Delhi sent Mathews ahead of Yuvraj Singh as he was striking the ball well in the slog overs. I think Yuvraj should have been sent at no. 4 as he too was hitting the ball quite well. Mathews hit three boundaries in quick succession and then he perished in 18th over. He made 17 runs off 8 deliveries. Delhi Daredevils were 174/3 after 18. Yuvraj Singh came in next and Malinga was ready to bowl his last over. Malinga was bang on target in that over. He didn't bowl even a single loose delivery to any of these left handers. Bumrah came on to bowl the last over of the innings. Duminy welcomed him with a six but Bumrah made a come back by taking Yuvraj's wicket on the 3rd ball of that over. Delhi ended up at 190/4 at the end of their 20 overs. Surprisingly Bumrah conceded the least number of runs in the whole innings in that last over. He only gave 10 runs in that over and picked up a cruicial wicket of Yuvraj Singh. Anyways 190 was a very good score on that pitch. Duminy was unbeaten on 78 at the end of the innings. He again played a captain's knock to give his team a good total.

Coulter-Nile and Joseph were the new ball bowlers for Delhi against Simmons and Parthiv Patel. They were not able to pick up the wickets but they also didn't give away too many runs. Mumbai Indians were 21/0 after 3 overs. Duminy himself came on to bowl the 4th over. Parthiv and Simmons hit 3 fours to him in that over and proved that he made a mistake by bringing himself to bowl 4th over. Joseph was given the ball in the 5th over and he provided Duminy the wicket of Simmons. After 5 overs Mumbai Indians were 38/1. Parthiv Patel was looking in good touch. He hit a four and a six to Mathews in 6th over but on the last ball of that over Mathews came back to pick up his wicket. Mumbai Indians lost two wickets inside first six overs. Mishra came onto bowl 7th over and he conceded 11 runs. While Nadeem gave only 5 runs in 8th over. In the 9th over Chand welcomed Mishra with a boundary but the next ball Mishra came back with his. Mishra bowled that delivery slower through the air and Chand came down the track and missed it completely. Jadhav did the rest behind the stumps.

Pollard and Rohit Sharma got together to build the Mumbai Indians' innings. Mumbai reached to the score of 81 at loss of 3 wickets at the half way mark. In 11th over Mishra picked up the wicket of Pollard. Mumbai were in all sorts of trouble after that wicket. Mumbai completed 100 runs at the end of 13th over. The asking rate was going higher and higher every over. At that point required runs per over were 13. So they were going to target every bowler. Nadeem came on to bowl 14th over and he conceded 15 runs. Tahir bowled a tight 15th over. So Duminy brought Coulter-Nile back into the attack. Coulter-Nile was hit for 2 fours by Rayudu on the first two balls but he ended the over with the wicket of Rohit Sharma. Rohit Sharma's wicket virtually ended the game for Mumbai. Mumbai Indians were 131/5 after 16. Then Tahir turned the game on its head. He picked up 3 wickets in 17th over. He first picked up Pandya on the first ball and then Rayudu and McGlenaghan on third and fourth ball of that over. He missed out on hat trick but he assured victory of his team.

Harbhajan and Malinga had to score 56 runs in 3 overs. Both of them were big hitters of the cricket ball but they had a mountain to climb. Harbhajan hit a six to Coulter-Nile in 18th over but after that there was nothing. Mumbai ended up at 153/8 and Daredevils won the match by 37 runs. Delhi Daredevils ended another loosing streak. It was a good win for them. They completely outplayed Mumbai Indians that night. It has been clear by now that if Delhi has to win the matches then their batting has to bring best out of them. Delhi Daredevils will face Royal Challengers Bangalore next.

#IPL8: #DDvRCB