Delhi Daredevils (DD) rode on an excellent bowling effort to restrict an in-form Mumbai Indians to 142/8 in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 tie at a jampacked Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
Electing to bowl, Daredevils banked on their strong pace battery of Kasigo Rabada, Chris Morris, Pat Cummins, leg spinner Amit Mishra and an electric fielding effort from Sanju Samson to remove the top four -- Parthiv Patel (8), Jos Buttler (28), Nitish Rana (8) and skipper Rohit Sharma (5) cheaply.
Patel and Buttler started well by raising a 37-run partnership before South African pace sensation Rabada broke through the defence of the Gujarat southpaw, crashing his leg stump with a yorker at 145 kms per hour.
Buttler, who dispatched Morris for a consecutive six and four, was dropped on 11 the next ball by wicketkeeper Risabh Pant.
The Englishman, however, failed to seize the advantage getting out after facing 18 balls and hitting three boundaries and two sixes, before being brilliantly run out by a direct hit from Sanju Samson.
Coming in to bowl only in the eighth over, Cummins dealt another blow to Mumbai by getting the key wicket of Rana with his very first ball.
Rana's attempt to pull a short delivery from the Australian only ended at the hands of Corey Anderson at deep midwicket.
Before Mumbai could do much to recover from the early jolts, leg-spinner Amit Mishra struck with the wicket of Rohit, whose poor run with the willow continued to haunt the Mumbai Indians.
Tottering at 60/4, Keiron Pollard (26) and Krunal Pandya could add only 24 runs in the next three overs before Mishra's googly ended Krunal's 16-ball stay.
Krunal's attempt to tickle the ball fine towards third man only resulted in a thin edge for stumper Pant to latch on to comfortably.
With half the side back in the dugout by the 13th over, Mumbai's hopes of posting a decent total rested on Pollard and Hardik Pandya (23).
The West Indian clearly looked out of touch but managed to get two boundaries in Zaheer's final over before Cummins got the better of him with a slower one off the first ball of the 18th over.
Pollard, who added 36 for the sixth wicket with Hardik, faced 29 balls and helped the ball to the ropes on four occasions.
Hardik did well to smash the ball out of the park twice but had little answer to some excellent death bowling by Delhi.
Rabada, bowling the penultimate over of the innings, displayed his football skills well to run Harbhajan Singh (2) out while attempting a quick single before Karun Nair effected Hardik's run out in the final over.
For Delhi, Mishra and Cummins were the pick of the bowlers picking two wickets each while Rabada chipped in with one.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 142/8 (Jos Buttler 28, Keiron Pollard 26, Hardik Pandya 24, Amit Mishra 2/18) vs Delhi Daredevils.
--IANS
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