New Delhi, April 13 Tilak Varma peppered the mid-wicket boundary well to top-score with 59, his second half-century of the season, as Mumbai Indians posted a competitive 205/5 in their 20 overs against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.
On a pitch which had some cracks, all of MI’s batters barring captain Hardik Pandya had starts, but only Varma marched forward to make 59 off 33 balls, with 22 of his runs coming through the mid-wicket region. He was also supported by Naman Dhir making 38 not out at the other end. For DC, barring Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam, all of their bowlers were expensive in their spells.
Pushed into batting first, Ryan Rickleton was off to a great start – flicking and driving to collect fours, while swivelling for a mighty 80m six over mid-wicket. After Rickleton glanced Starc for four, Rohit Sharma picked a six off a top-edge on scoop - a neat square drive was followed by a top-notch lofted drive, as 19 runs came off third over.
After Rickleton hammered Mukesh for four, DC struck when Rohit missed a length ball while trying to slog sweep Vipraj and was trapped lbw on review. Giving Mukesh his third power-play over didn’t pay off for DC as Rickleton pulled him for four, while Suryakumar Yadav brought out his trademark flick going for six, as MI ended the power-play at 59/1.
But Rickleton couldn’t convert his great start into a big score as Kuldeep Yadav’s googly flattened his middle stump. With Tilak Varma getting boundaries off pull, reverse sweep, lofted punch down the ground and even off top-edges, Suryakumar put out a masterclass in sweeping for fours off Kuldeep, Axar and Nigam, while flicking Mohit Sharma once for a boundary.
But DC struck in consecutive overs to slow down MI’s charge - Suryakumar holed out to long-off on a googly from Kuldeep, while Hardik Pandya was dismissed in the same fashion by Nigam. Varma, though, led MI’s charge in the back end by lofting and flicking Nigam and Kuldeep for boundaries, before bringing up his fifty in 26 balls.
With Naman Dhir and Tilak hooking Mohit for a four each, including the latter surviving an lbw appeal off him, MI were primed to reach the 200-mark. That increased further when Dhir swivelled and whipped Starc for consecutive fours, before Tilak sliced over third man for third boundary off the 18th over.
Tilak earned another reprieve on 54 when Mukesh and Ashutosh Sharma collided chest-on while taking his catch at backward point, while Axar missed a chance to inflict his run out. Though Tilak swept straight to deep mid-wicket off Mukesh, MI had crossed 200-mark by then.
Brief Scores: Mumbai Indians 205/5 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 59, Ryan Rickleton 41; Kuldeep Yadav 2-23, Vipraj Nigam 2-41) against Delhi Capitals
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