The Indian Premier League 2014 match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday started with the players observing a moment’s silence in memory of Madhav Mantri, the former India wicketkeeper, who passed away earlier in the day.
Mumbai also paid tribute to one of the city’s cricketing stalwarts with a 15-run win, and kept their slender chances of qualifying for the play-offs alive.
For the record, Mumbai, put into bat, made 173 in 19.3 overs and restricted Delhi to 158 for four, but the scoreline does not fully capture the drama and tension at the ground.
First, Pragyan Ojha was drafted into the Mumbai side for Praveen Kumar, who was initially a part of the playing XI but picked up an injury after the toss. Then, Mike Hussey batted with freedom, to get off Mumbai off to a blistering start. His seven fours and two sixes to all corners of the ground was another advertisement of his skills.
With Lendl Simmons, fresh from an unbeaten 100, for company, Hussey put on 87 runs for the opening wicket in eight overs, before Delhi broke through. Having hit three fours in Imran Tahir’s first over, Simmons went ahead with yet another shot only to be caught by a running Wayne Parnell at sweeper cover.
The platform was set and Rohit Sharma continued the carnage with some classy drives and pulls. Hussey was batting on an elevated plane, and when he lofted a googly from Tahir over extra cover to bring his fifty.
Just when it looked like the Mumbai batsmen had been programmed to operate like robots, with the single pursuit of scoring as many as possible to boost their net run-rate, a sharp pick up by Kedar Jadhav at backward point and Dinesh Karthik’s deftness behind the stumps brought the curtains down on Hussey’s enterprising knock of 56.
Kieron Pollard started with a six, but by then Mumbai had already pressed the self-destruction button. From a boundary-fest, suddenly batsmen failed to execute their plans and it triggered a massive collapse.
Having pulled Jaydev Unadkat to the midwicket boundary in the first ball of the 15th over, Rohit was bowled off the next delivery, attempting to cut a ball that was too close to his liking. A ball later, Pollard’s attempt to guide Unadkat, bowling from round the wicket, to third-man resulted in a thin edge that Karthik picked up.
Ambati Rayudu, Aditya Tare and Harbhajan Singh, perished in the deep trying to play extravagant shots and two run outs later, Mumbai completed their suicide mission losing seven wickets for 33 runs in 31 balls. Tahir was biggest beneficiary as he returned figures of three for 37.
With the adrenalin high after having pulled things back, Kevin Pietersen started the chase with some high-octane shots, a straight-batted six off Jasprit Bumrah being the standout.
Pietersen (44), dropped once by Marchant de Lange on 25, could not sustain the attack as his attempted switch hit off Harbhajan Singh went topsy turvy, not long after Murali Vijay was stumped in Shreyas Gopal’s first over.
De Lange returned to uproot Karthik’s stumps, and that point Delhi needed 113 runs in 62 balls.
Manoj Tiwary and JP Duminy batted to a plan of rotating the strike, dispatching the loose balls and taking the game into the last two overs, when they needed 32 runs.
That is when De Lange produced an excellent over that produced only seven runs and included Tiwary’s wicket, bringing an end to the fourth-wicket stand of 85, shifting the focus of the Mumbai fans to the next game of the evening between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals.
Duminy was stranded on 45, as Delhi were once again left searching for their first win in India this year.
Sidhanta Patnaik is sub editor at Wisden India. Visit www.wisdenindia.com for more on the IPL or follow them on Twitter @WisdenIndia.
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