Suryakumar Yadav’s doughty 73 not out proved to be the difference as Mumbai Indians sealed the fourth and final play-off berth with a 59-run trouncing of Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League here on Wednesday.
Suryakumar’s masterclass — a 43-ball knock with seven fours and half a dozen sixes in adverse situation — paved the way for a dominating win. The five-time champions had not made the play-offs last year.
Delhi Capitals, who came into this contest with their fair share of opportunity to reach the final four, saw the tables being turned on them when MI batters collected 48 runs off the last two overs.
But the visitors were also guilty of a meek reply in a do-or-die contest which had their top-order blown away in the powerplay, leaving the rest of the contest a mere formality.
Chasing 181, Delhi Capitals, who were without regular skipper Axar Patel in this game, rolled over for 121 in 18.2 overs with Sameer Rizvi (39) being the top scorer.
Mitchell Santner was the pick of the Mumbai Indians bowlers, returning 4-0-11-3 and accounting for Rizvi, Vipraj Nigam (20) and Ashutosh Sharma (18). Jasprit Bumrah enjoyed another successful outing as he returned 3.2-0-12-3.
Delhi Capitals’ hopes suffered severe blows right at the start of the chase when stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis (6) and KL Rahul (11) fell cheaply, leaving the others with a mountainous task to accomplish.
Rahul, coming off an unbeaten ton in the last game, perished when he edged one off the toe end of the bat awkwardly off Trent Boult (1/29) while du Plessis hit one straight to long-on off Deepak Chahar (1/22).
Bumrah left DC reeling at 65/5 when he trapped Tristan Stubbs (2) in front of the wickets and in the 15th over, Santner dismissed Rizvi and Ashutosh to shut the doors completely on the Delhi Capitals.
Earlier in the first half, it was Suryakumar who anchored MI’s resistance even as Delhi’s spin pair of Kuldeep Yadav (1/22) and Nigam (0/25) exploited the sluggish nature of the surface to the maximum benefit.
On an uncharacteristic Wankhede Stadium pitch which had plenty of grip and turn for spinners and slow cutters doing the job for fast bowlers, Suryakumar dug in to produce a quality knock for the five-time IPL winners.
Suryakumar forged two crucial stands which revived a faltering innings. First, amid a challenging phase of play with DC’s spinners dominating the proceedings, Suryakumar put on 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Tilak Varma. Towards the end, found a perfect foil in Dhir (24 off 8 balls, 2x4s, 2x6s) to add another 57 runs from a mere 21 balls.
The tables turned drastically in the last two overs when the Indian T20 skipper Suryakumar and Dhir hit a grand total of five sixes and four boundaries to add 48 runs, shifting the momentum completely in MI’s favour.
However, at one stage it all looked far too difficult for the Mumbai batters who struggled right from the end of the powerplay until the 18th over began.
Rohit Sharma (5) fell to a left-arm pacer for the fourth time this season edging one behind off Mustafizur Rahman ((1/30), Ryan Rickelton (25) and Will Jacks (21) perished after making impressive starts while Tilak made a laborious run-a-ball 27.