IPL 2018, MI vs DD: Mumbai Indians' middle-order collapse is the SK turning point of the match
Delhi Daredevils registered their first victory over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede after six long years, courtesy of some fine hitting by opener Jason Roy.
Given a target of 195, the Daredevils took it to the final ball of the match but managed to cross the finishing line at the end.
Roy top-scored for the Daredevils, hitting the winning shot and staying not out on 91. He formed three 50+ runs partnership with Gautam Gambhir, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer to guide Delhi home.
As needed in any big run chase, Delhi Daredevils started their inning in the best possible manner.
The opening duo of Roy and Gambhir put up 50 on the board in the first five overs before the Delhi captain departed to a miscued pool shot against Mustafizur Rahman.
The capital side did not lose momentum with Pant joining in the act and forming a match-winning partnership of 69 runs with Roy. Iyer played an important cameo at the end to guide the Daredevils to their first win of the campaign.
Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians started this game in the best possible manner when Evin Lewis and Suryakumar Yadav ( a surprise yet successful move to make him open) piled up 84 runs in the powerplay overs.
Mumbai registered their fastest ever fifty in the competition when they reached the total today in just 22 deliveries.
The foundation was set by these two for Mumbai to set a target of over 200. Even after these two returned to the dugout, Mumbai Indians were at a healthy position of 158/2 at the end of 15 overs with Rohit Sharma at the crease and Ishan Kishan hitting it all over the park.
But what happened in the last five overs in the first innings was pure harakiri from the Mumbai Indians middle order.
From a brilliant position of 158/2 after 15 overs, Mumbai could manage just 36 runs in the next five and lost five wickets in the procedure.
In the bigger picture, this middle order collapse resulted in the Indians scoring at least 15-20 runs less than what the doctor ordered.
And this is why Mumbai Indians' middle order harakiri turned out to be the turning point of the match.
It all started to go downwards for Mumbai in the 16th over when Daniel Christian picked up two wickets in two balls.
First up was Kishan, who attempted a needless reverse sweep and was clean bowled off a full toss delivery. Kieron Pollard followed one ball later with Christian's off-cutter castling the West Indian's off stump.
Sharma followed next, holding one out in the deep to a slower one from Trent Boult. The captain's nightmarish run, unfortunately, continued!
The Pandya brothers also could not help with the bat with Krunal giving away his wicket to an unconventional shot whereas Hardik had to play the big shots from the word go and was dismissed when he mistimed one.
After such a solid start, Mumbai Indians needed a strong finish to carry on the momentum into the second innings.
Their middle order failed to do so which handed over the advantage to Delhi Daredevils. With the help of a stunning knock from Roy, Delhi completed a memorable run chase whereas Mumbai Indians were handed their third straight loss.
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