Mumbai: Captain Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu made crucial knocks as Mumbai Indians notched up a thrilling five-wicket win over Delhi Daredevils in their rain-affected IPL cricket match to jump to the top half of the league table here today.
Mumbai struggled early in their chase of 153 as they were reduced to 8 for 2 in second over but captain Rohit Sharma (46) and Ambati Rayudu (49 not out) shared 60 runs for the fifth wicket to repair the innings before Kieron Pollard took them home with three balls to spare with a quick-fire 14-ball 26 not out.
After today’s win, their fourth on the trot, Mumbai jumped to fourth spot with 10 points from 10 matches while Delhi dropped to sixth place with eight points from 10 matches. This was Delhi’s sixth loss.
Play resumed after a short while, but rain halted it again after 5.2 overs when Mumbai were 40 for 3 and the home side must be feeling nervous at the possibility of losing the match if it could not be resumed.
But play did resume after half an hour and Rohit played the role of sheet anchor after coming out at 8/2 in the second over till he was out in the 16th over. His 37-ball knock had two fours and three sixes.
Rayudu played a solid innings of 49 not out from 40 balls which was laced with four boundaries and a six. Pollard then brought the home supporters at the Wankhede Stadium with a cameo of 26 not out from 14 balls which had three sixes in it as Mumbai scored 153 for five from 19.3 overs.
Earlier, Yuvraj Singh struck a stroke-filled 57 off 44 balls to take Delhi to a challenging 152 for 6 after electing to bat.
Yuvraj has been woefully out of form and a lot was expected from him.
The left-handed batsman rose to the occasion with a stroke-filled 57 off 44 balls that included two successive leg-side sixes off Mitchell McClenaghan and seven fours before he departed slashing Lasith Malinga in the last ball of the penultimate over.
Delhi’s batting was, on the whole, disappointing with skipper Jean-Paul Duminy making the second best score of 28.
For Mumbai, Harbhajan Singh was easily the outstanding bowler with superb figures of 2 for 11 in four overs while Malinga got 2 for 33. McClenaghan was expensive without a wicket to his name while Jagadeesha Suchith and Hardik Pandya took the other two wickets. Delhi started on the wrong foot when Mayank Agarwal hung his bat out to the first ball from Malinga and edged behind.
The duo of captain Duminy and youngster Shreyas Iyer raised hopes of another fight-back when the South African smashed a straight six with good timing off Vinay Kumar and Iyer followed suit by taking 14 runs off McClenaghan.
Iyer hit two lofted fours and was lucky when Suchith and Pandya clashed at cover point while chasing a leading edge and reprieved the youngster on 10.
And when Duminy swung Vinay Kumar for a second six over mid wicket followed by a four, the score had jumped to 43 off five overs. (PTI)
