Fifties from Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav set up Mumbai Indians’ comfortable five-wicket win over Delhi Capitals on Sunday and took them back to the top of the Indian Premier League.
South African wicketkeeper-batsman De Kock and in-form Yadav, who hit his second successive half-century, both scored 53 as holders Mumbai reached their target of 163 in 19.4 overs.
Spinner Krunal Pandya stood out with figures 2-26 from his four overs as Mumbai restricted Delhi to 162 for four batting first in Abu Dhabi.
“Means a lot. The kind of cricket we are playing gives us confident going forward. Really pleased how we have played in the first half of the tournament,” Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma said after his team’s fifth win in seven games.
“Perfect day for us. We did everything right today. We bowled really well, then clinical with the bat.”
Four-time IPL winners Mumbai displaced Delhi from the top of the eight-team table. Both the teams have the same wins and losses but Mumbai enjoy a better net run-rate.
Delhi opener Shikhar Dhawan struck his first half-century of the IPL season as he hit an unbeaten 69 and put on a key partnership of 85 with skipper Shreyas Iyer who scored 42.
“I feel 175 would have looked completely different on the board, we definitely fell short of it,” Iyer told reporters in a virtual chat after the loss.
“We have three days break and we will definitely work on our weaknesses and will be back stronger.”
“It was really important for us to get Shikhar in form and obviously he paced his innings pretty well. We needed that fifty from him.”
Meanwhile Iyer informed that wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant will be out of action for at least a week as advised by the team doctor after missing the match due to hamstring injury.
