It was time for nostalgia at the Wankhede stadium on Tuesday night. The Indian Premier League match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils was more than just a contest between teams looking to break into the top four and make it to the knock-out stage of the cash-rich Twenty20 tournament.
It reunited some of the heroes of India’s World Cup-winning team of 2011.
There was retired batting legend Sachin Tendulkar, now mentor of Mumbai Indians, and Harbhajan Singh on one side, and coach of that World Cup-winning team, Gary Kirsten, Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan on the Daredevils side -- all at the venue where India beat Sri Lanka in the final to win the World Cup after 28 years.
While Kirsten is Delhi Daredevils' coach now, Yuvraj is the IPL’s costliest buy at Rs 16 crore and pacer Zaheer is returning from a long injury lay-off.
Yuvraj, who was player of the 2011 World Cup, played a leading hand on Tuesday, scoring 57 off 44 balls in a losing cause as Delhi, batting first, mustered up 152-6 in their 20 overs, while Zaheer provided the early breakthrough for his side, trapping Lendl Simmons leg before for naught in the first over.
However, Mumbai proved too good for the Delhi. After Harbhajan Singh picked two wickets for brilliant figures of 4-1-11-2, Mumbai hit up the required runs and won by five wickets.
- Mumbai Indians make it four in a row to jump to fourth
Captain Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu played crucial knocks after Harbhajan Singh's impressive showing with the ball as Mumbai Indians notched up a thrilling win in a rain-affected match.
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