Dubai: Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians (MI) beat Delhi Capitals (DC) by 57 runs in the first qualifier of the Indian Premier League 2020 at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Thursday.
Put into bat, MI started off cautiously before ace spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (3/29) trapped Rohit Sharma (0) early in the innings but Quinton de Kock (40 off 25 balls) and Suryakumar Yadav (51 off 38 balls) ensured MI still got off to a flier. However, DC stormed their way back at the halfway stage, as Suryakumar was picked up by Anrich Nortje and Ashwin dismissed Kieron Pollard for a duck to peg back the scoring rate. Ishan Kishan (55* off 30 balls) powered MI off to a resurgence in the late overs. Hardik Pandya (37* off 14 balls) joined him in a massive blitz towards the end, as 78 runs were scored in the last 5 overs powered Mumbai to a healthy 200/5 wkts in the allotted 20 overs
Chasing a challenging 201-run target, DC endured their worst start of the season after losing openers out-of-form Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, and and Ajinkya Rahane, all departing without troubling the scorers. While Boult accounted for the DC opener’s wicket, Boult trapped Rahane. MI inflicted more woes on their opponents, whose half of the men were back in the dressing room with just 41 runs on board. Axar Patel (42 of 33 balls) and Marcus Stoinis (65 off 46 balls) showed some resistance in the middle as they tried to rebuild after the early damages, and stitched 71 runs for the sixth wicket. Bumrah castled Stoinis in the 16th over before the lanky pacer struck again in the same over to send back Daniel Sams (0), and that left DC tottering at 112/7. Kagiso Rabada remained unbeaten on 15 as DC fell short of the target by 57 runs,
DC will now play the winners of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2 on Sunday. In the Eliminator, SunRisers Hyderabad will play Royal Challengers Bangalore on Friday. The winners of Qualifier will play MI in the final November 10.
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