With the young guns blazing for Delhi Capitals early on in the Indian Premier League, Shikhar Dhawan had been relatively quiet in the first six games. The veteran opener helped Delhi Capitals post a respectable total against defending champion Mumbai Indians.
Dhawan batted right through the innings as his maiden fifty of the season (69 n.o., 52b, 6x4, 1x6) was instrumental in Capitals ending the innings at 162 for four after electing to bat.
Chanceless knock
While Dhawan played a chanceless knock, he couldn’t really afford to take too many risks once Mumbai Indians struck twice in the PowerPlay.
It took left-arm pacer Trent Boult just three balls to account for Prithvi Shaw as the aggressive opener scooped a full-length ball to Krunal Pandya at covers. Ajinkya Rahane — who earned a debut for his new franchise as Rishabh Pant was ruled out due to hamstring injury — drove the pacers crisply but succumbed to Krunal’s left-arm spin in the fifth over.
Dhawan then rebuilt the innings along with captain Shreyas Iyer (42, 33b, 5x4), the third Mumbaikar to have joined him at the crease in succession. The duo batted without much fuss and the feature of their 85-run partnership off 62 balls was their strike rotation.
Shreyas holed out to deep mid-wicket off Krunal in the 15th over. With Shimron Hetmyer making way for wicketkeeper Alex Carey, the other Delhi debutant, Marcus Stoinis was promoted to No. 5.
The allrounder started off his dream run with successive fours off Boult in the 16th over but a confusion while running between the wickets resulted in his run out.
Scoreboard
Delhi Capitals Innings: Prithvi Shaw c Krunal Pandya b Boult 4; Shikhar Dhawan not out 69; Ajinkya Rahane lbw b Krunal Pandya 15; Shreyas Iyer c Boult b Krunal Pandya 42; Marcus Stoinis run out (Yadav/Chahar) 13; Alex Carey not out 14. Extras: (W-5) 5
Total: (for 4 wickets in 20 overs) 162
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-24, 3-109, 4-130
Mumbai Indians bowling: Trent Boult 4-0-36-1, James Pattinson 3-0-37-0, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-26-0, Krunal Pandya 4-0-26-2, Kieron Pollard 1-0-10-0, Rahul Chahar 4-0-27-0.