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*DC vs MI - REVIEW*
*THIS LEAGUE OOZES CLASS:*
There we go, now the streak has increased to three, IPL has seen three days with three competitive games, all lifting the standard of this league and this time, it was the Rohit led Mumbai who have managed to slide past Delhi Capitals in a nail biting contest at the Arun Jaitley stadium. The fact that the first week of this contest went by in a lukewarm fashion still baffles me.
*THE PITCH CONUNDRUM:*
Contrary to the bounce ridden pitch of Delhi when they played their first home game, this one had a fair bit of assistance for the spinners as well, helping Chawla strike gold and getting three in his bag. It was easier to attack the new ball rather than take the attack to the bowlers in the middle overs where the pitch misbehaved a bit, for both seamers and slower bowlers. Both captains wanted to bowl first but the coin fell in favour of the away skipper, Rohit.
*WARNER DROPS ANCHOR AGAIN:*
With Delhi’s top 6 misfiring (barring Warner) time and again, this time collectively scoring just 49 runs, the skipper of the home side had to play responsibly once again, opening himself up to more criticism. We could see the attacking Aussie look settled against the pacers, but struggled to up the tempo against the likes of Piyush Chawla. He could be seen having some serious troubles accelerating after laying the base, resulting in another knock coming in a losing cause.
*AXAR IS LIVING A DREAM:*
Axar’s love affair with the bat continued. Ever since the first game, he has been giving a strong response to the management to try him in the top 4 and given his impeccable touch with the bat, that move may just be on the cards. Scoring 54 off 25, over a strike rate of 200 where none of the recognised batters crossed 150 deserves all the hype and praise.
*ROHIT FINALLY GETS GOING:*
After a lean patch of about 29 innings, Rohit finally delivered the goods in a tense chase. He started strong very similar to how Kohli got going yesterday, playing fluently and positively and mixing caution with aggression smartly. Though his tempo came down considerably post the powerplay forcing him to score just 18 off his last 22 balls faced.
*THE TILAK VERMA IMPETUS:*
The amount of maturity that Tilak has shown in a brief period is commendable to say the least. Today again, he notched up a timely 41 off 29 depositing 4 into the stands and preventing panic in the MI camp. He has had a much better season than Ishan Kishan who today again, struggled with his strike rate after a fluent start, which has been a cause of concern for quite some time now.
*SLOWING IT DOWN:*
DC, after being on the receiving end of bashing from Mumbai’s top 3 had what it takes to pull back the game with a fine death bowling heist. It started with a double wicket over from Mukesh followed by Nortje and Fizz keeping it tight and ensuring that no freebies are on offer. The MI batters were choked down to the core due to this effort, pushing the game down till the very last ball.
*WHAT SEALED THE FATE?:*
It was the calm headed brains of Green and Tim David that saw MI through. Despite David struggling to find the middle of the wood, he smashed a match sealing six off the last delivery of the 19th over, ran two on the 20th making full use of his height-gifting MI their first signs of happiness after hammerings from RCB and CSK. Green, with a 8 ball 17 was clinical at the back end, providing the much needed finishing impetus.
*WHERE MUMBAI STAND:*
Mumbai are finally off the blocks with a close finish up their sleeves but still have a lot to address. SKY’s horrid run continued today as well, departing for a golden duck and to couple that up with tactical blunders from the MI captain to play a spinner less and use Green for bowling three overs on a pitch that did not suit him enough. But this knock from Rohit should ease the nerves in the camp and if a few more senior players step up and perform, we could see MI catch up with the rest of the outfits.