IPL 2020, MI vs DC (Qualifier 1): Who won yesterday's match?
The Mumbai Indians (MI) flattened the Delhi Capitals (DC) by 57 runs to book their spot in the IPL 2020 final for a second successive year. Once primed to be title winners, DC stand at the brink of missing their shot at a first-ever IPL final.
Chasing 201 for victory, DC never seemed in the hunt. The top order set an IPL record by losing three wickets with nothing on the board, after which it was just a matter of time. Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant's dismissals dug DC deeper into a hole.
Marcus Stoinis and Axar Patel played competent hands, but it was too little, too late as the team slipped to an embarrassing defeat - a pattern they have fallen into after a dominant start to the season. Jasprit Bumrah shone with four wickets to his name.
They will next play the winner of the Eliminator between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and Royal Challengers Bangalore.
Hardik, Kishan power MI to 200/5
Skipper and opener Rohit Sharma's return from injury continued to add nothing to MI. However, a much improved batting performance saw several key contributions all the way through.
A brisk stand between Quinton de Kock (40 off 25) and Suryakumar Yadav (51 off 38 balls) set up the innings for MI. An impressive finishing act by Hardik Pandya (37 off 14) and Ishan Kishan (55 off 30) took MI to 200.
MI would feel lucky to get to the 200 mark without any contribution from their skipper and vice-captain, as both Rohit and Kieron Pollard fell for ducks. For DC, Ravichandran Ashwin was impressive, standing out with 3 good wickets. Calamitously, their much-vaunted overseas pair struggled for penetration as Rabada and Nortje had only one wicket to show for between them.
IPL 2020, MI vs DC: Who was the Man of the Match?
In a one-sided game, there were many players who stood up for the winning team. The uncapped duo of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav continued to knock down the door to Team India selection, while Hardik Pandya's finishing act took the total outside chaseable territory for DC.
While Trent Boult's double wicket maiden at the start derailed the chase entirely, the eventual winner of the award was a bowler who did the same, plus more - Jasprit Bumrah.
A spell of four overs, 14 runs and 4 wickets did its part in waving goodbye to DC. He snapped up Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer up top, before being reintroduced when Marcus Stoinis was setting up to threaten the score just a bit. He delivered immediately, as the twin wickets of Stoinis and Sams left DC with too much to do.
For a match-winning bag of wickets, Jasprit Bumrah was the Man of the Match in yesterday's IPL game.