Trent Boult dealt telling opening blows while Jasprit Bumrah broke the backbone of the middle-order with some brilliant seam bowling as Mumbai Indians choked Delhi Capitals to 110 for 9 in an Indian Premier League match in Dubai on Saturday.
Boult (3/21 in 4 overs) and Bumrah (3/17 in 4 overs) not only accounted for six of the nine wickets but also bowled 31 of the 62 dot balls consumed by DC batsmen.
Not for once did Delhi Capitals looked like being in control as they made the Dubai strip and the MI bowling attack look doubly menacing with some of the best batsmen abdicating their responsibilities of playing fearless cricket.
Wasting 10.2 overs on dot balls out of possible 20 showed that Delhi batters’ confidence has hit the lowest ebb.
Boult was brilliant upfront removing openers Shikhar Dhawan (0) and Prithvi Shaw (10, 11 balls) in the powerplay which pegged Capitals back.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer (25, 29 balls) and Rishabh Pant (21 off 24 balls) then compounded their team’s worries as they failed to regain the lost momentum.
The duo for the umpteenth time looked like playing for themselves and the intent was missing which affected the morale of the batsmen coming down the order.
Quinton de Kock effected a ‘MS Dhoniesque’ stumping off Rahul Chahar to see Iyer’s return after which came Bumrah’s devastating two-over spell.
A ball pitched on length was climbing up while moving a shade away which Marcus Stoinis edged to the wicketkeeper.
Pant’s misery ended when Bumrah came round the wicket and fired one from wide off the crease that came in with the angle to trap him leg before.
He then tormented Harshal Patel, who played and missed a few before being adjudged leg-before, a decision that couldn’t be reviewed as Pant had consumed it during his dismissal.
Scoreboard
Delhi Capitals Innings: Prithvi Shaw c de Kock b Boult 10; Shikhar Dhawan c Yadav b Boult 0; Shreyas Iyer st de Kock b Chahar 25; Rishabh Pant lbw b Bumrah 21; Marcus Stoinis c de Kock b Bumrah 2; Shimron Hetmyer c Krunal b Coulter-Nile 11; Harshal Patel lbw b Bumrah 5; Ravichandran Ashwin c Krunal b Boult 12; Praveen Dubey not out 7; Kagiso Rabada run out 12. Extras: (LB-3 W-2) 5
Total: (For 9 wickets in 20 overs) 110
Fall of Wickets: 1/1 2/15 3/50 4/57 5/62 6/73 7/78 8/96 9/110
Mumbai Indians bowling: Trent Boult 4-0-21-3, Krunal Pandya 3-0-13-0, Jayant Yadav 3-0-18-0, Jasprit Bumrah 4-0-17-3, Nathan Coulter-Nile 2-0-14-1, Rahul Chahar 4-0-24-1.