Pandya brothers Hardik and Krunal shine in Mumbai's 40-run victory.
Images from Thursday's IPL match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians, in Delhi.
Clinical bowling after a late assault by Pandya brothers Hardik and Krunal earned Mumbai Indians a comprehensive 40-run victory over Delhi Capitals in their second leg Indian Premier League match between the teams, in Delhi, on Thursday.
Chasing a challenging 169 to win, Delhi Capitals frittered away a good start provided by Prithvi Shaw (20 off 24 balls) and Shikhar Dhawan (35 off 22) and were restricted to 128 for 9.
Rahul Chahar (3 for 19) and Jasprit Bumrah (2-18) did the bulk of damage as Mumbai Indians moved to second on the eight-team league table with 12 points from 9 matches, behind Chennai Super Kings, who have 14.
Chasing 169 was going to be tough on a slow and low Ferozshah Kotla wicket and it turned out to be exactly that as Delhi squandered a solid platform of 48 for no loss in six overs to eventually lose by a big margin.
Nineteen-year-old Chahar was the difference for Mumbai Indians in the bowling department. He dismissed the dangerous opening duo of Shikhar Dhawan (35 off 22) and Prithvi Shaw (20 off 24).
His outstanding figures read three for 19 in four overs and he continues his upward graph this season.
The home team could never recover from that double blow and suffered its first defeat after three consecutive victories. It was also Delhi's third defeat at home in four matches at the Kotla this season. They are third on the league table with 10 points.
Mumbai, on the other hand, took another step towards the play-offs with their sixth win in nine games.
Earlier, Hardik (32 off 15 balls) and Krunal (37 not out off 26) provided a much-needed late onslaught by hammering 51 runs off the last 18 balls to put Mumbai in a strong position.
This was after Delhi spinners Amit Mishra (1/18) and Axar Patel (1/17) tightened the screws on Mumbai with a tidy effort.
Considering the slow nature of the surface, Delhi will have to bat really well to chase down 169.
With teams batting second winning all three previous games at the Kotla, Rohit Sharma's decision to bat first surprised even opposition skipper Shreyas Iyer.
On the slow and low surface, Mumbai made a measured start, Rohit's classy cover drive being the only boundary in the first three overs, which yielded just 16 runs.
Runs started flowing after that streaky boundary as Quinton de Kock (35 off 27) collected a four and six over deep square leg and by the first powerplay, Mumbai were a promising 57 for no loss.
It was time to introduce spin and that provided an immediate breakthrough for Delhi as Mishra bowled Rohit with a beauty on his very first ball of the night for his 150th IPL scalp.
Patel was brought in from the other end and he too made instant impact by removing Ben Cutting, leaving Mumbai at 63 for two.
Runs were hard to come by with the two spinners in operation, creating scoreboard pressure which led to the run-out of a well-set de Kock following a terrible mix up with Suryakumar Yadav (26).
With Mumbai struggling to 117 for four in 17 overs, a late assault was very much needed to put up a fighting total. And that was provided by the Pandya brothers, with both going after Keemo Paul in the 18th over that leaked 17 runs.
Hardik, who is looking more dangerous with each passing game, whipped Morris for a six before pulling off a helicopter shot off Kagiso Rabada in the final over.
Rabada scalped two wickets for 38.
