Mumbai Indians’ Ambati Rayudu played a crucial hand of 49 not out against Delhi Daredevils during the IPL in Mumbai yesterday. (BCCI)
Agencies/Mumbai
Ambati Rayudu struck 49 not out as the Mumbai Indians pulled off a fine five-wicket win over the Delhi Daredevils in their Indian Premier League match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai yesterday.
Delhi, after struggling with the bat, eventually posted 152-6 after Yuvraj Singh bashed his way to 57 off 44 balls with offspinner Harbhajan Singh returning the outstanding figures of 4-1-11-2 which included 16 dot balls.
Rayudu then struck a composed innings, off 40 balls and four fours and a six, as Mumbai reached 153-5 with three balls of their innings remaining. The win moved Mumbai to fourth on the table, just one point behind the Kolkata Knight Riders. Mumbai made a rocky start to their run chase as they slipped to 8-2 inside two overs after the loss of Lendl Simmons (0) and Hardik Pandya (5). Lightning and a slight drizzle then interrupted proceedings for 16 minutes and the break did Mumbai no good as Patel (13), just two balls after the resumption of play, slashed a delivery from medium-pacer Mathews to Amit Mishra in the covers.
Harbhajan (5) was sent in, in the search for quick runs as Mumbai tried to get ahead on the Duckworth/Lewis method but he was bowled by paceman Nathan Coulter-Nile with the rain intervening immediately after Harbhajan’s dismissal resulting in a 30-minute delay.
Rohit Sharma and Rayudu then shared in a 60-run fifth-wicket stand to take Mumbai to 100-4 in the 16th over before Rohit, who scored 46 off 37 balls with two fours and three sixes, was bowled by legspinner Amit Mishra.
But Kieron Pollard blasted a quick-fire 26 not out off just 14 balls as he and Rayudu steered Mumbai to victory with Pollard smashing a six off the second ball of the last over to just about seal the win.
Mumbai enjoyed a wonderful start to the match when paceman Lasith Malinga (2-33) had Mayank Agarwal (0) caught behind by keeper Parthiv Patel off the first ball of the innings.
JP Duminy (28) and Shreyas Iyer (19) steadied the innings with a second-wicket stand of 43 before Iyer was outfoxed by Harbhajan to offer up a simple catch to Vinay Kumar at short third man.
Duminy looked in good touch but he was dismissed by a superb caught and bowled effort from left-arm spinner Jagadeesha Suchith with the bowler diving to his left to take a sharp catch.
Duminy’s dismissal left Delhi on 50-3 in the seventh over before Harbhajan struck once again when he had Kedar Jadhav (16) stumped after the batsman had advanced down the wicket. Angelo Mathews (12) and Yuvraj tried their best to resurrect the innings with a laboured fourth-wicket stand of 24 off 4.2 overs.
But their attempt to revive the innings failed as Mathews holed out to long-off off the bowling of seamer Pandya, the bowler’s first wicket in the IPL. Yuvraj finally cut loose, in the 17th over, when he struck three consecutive fours off the bowling of Malinga before he bashed back-to-back sixes off the bowling of left-arm quick Mitchell McCleneghan as he raised his fifty off 40 balls with seven fours and two sixes.
The left-handed Yuvraj finally departed in the penultimate over courtesy of a remarkable catch, off the bowling of Malinga, from Lendl Simmons at backward point with the fielder diving full length to his right to pull off a one-handed grab.
Brief scores
Mumbai Indians 153 for 5 (Rayudu 49*, Rohit 46) beat Delhi Daredevils 152 for 6 (Yuvraj 57) by 5 wickets
