Axar, Lalit, Kuldeep shine as Delhi Capitals beat Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets

Mumbai: Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav's fine knocks helped Delhi Capitals beat Mumbai Indians by 4 wickets in their opening game in the IPL 2022 at the Brabourne stadium, here on Sunday.

A 70-run partnership in just 30 balls between Patel and Lalit Yadav enabled Delhi to chase down a competitive total of 177 runs in 18.2 overs.

However, Delhi started their innings in a hurry, losing wickets at regular intervals. Within the power-play Delhi lost three wickets in quick succession including their captain Rishabh Pant. Delhi were tottering at 32 for 3 in 4.2 overs.

But at the other end, Prithvi Shaw took sole charge to score runs. He smashed two consecutive fours off Daniel Sams and in the next overs of Jaspreet Bumrah, the right hand batter took 10 runs with the help of two fours.

After taking two quick wickets of Prithvi Shaw and Rovman Powell, it looked like Mumbai Indians have seized the initiative from Delhi. But Axar Patel who was not so impressive in his bowling, rescued the team. First he made a 32-run satnd with Shardul thakur for the sixth wicket and then made a 75-run 7th wicket partnership in just 30 balls with Lalit Yadav to guide Delhi home.

Axar made 38 runs in just 17 balls with the help of two fours and three towering sixes while Lalit Yadav made 48 runs in 38 balls.

Earlier, fine bowling performances by left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav and pacer Khaleel Ahmad helped Delhi Capitals restrict Mumbai Indians to a par score of 177/5 in 20 overs.

Put into bat, Mumbai Indians' openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan started the proceedings with ease as the duo smashed 10 runs in the very first over of Shardul Thakur.

The Mumbai Indian skipper Sharma was more aggressive in his approach than Kishan, trying to send out everything over the fence. Both batters were scoring runs freely as none of the Delhi Capitals' bowlers including star spinner Axar Patel were effective enough to curtail the racing run rate. Patel was most expensive as he gave away 26 runs in just three overs.

After seeing their main bowlers' ineffectiveness, Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant brought Kuldeep Yadav into the attack in the 8th over. The 27-year-old left-arm spin bowler immediately gave a respite to the team when he scalped the dangerous Sharma.

Sharma made 41 off 32 with the help of two sixes and four fours. Sharma and Kishan made a 67 runs partnership in only 8.2 overs.

In his next over, Yadav who was part of the Indian team in the Sri Lanka series, gave another jolt to Mumbai Indian, taking Anmolpreet Singh's wicket.

A right-handed batsman Anmolpreet, who made his IPL debut on September 19, 2021 against Chennai Super Kings in the last season, did not read Kuldeep well. He tried to slice it over the covers but miscued it towards long-off, where Lalit Yadav ran in from the deep to take a simple catch.

The departure of Anmolpreet brought the debutant 19-year-old, Tilak Verma. However, The Hyderabad Ranji player too did not stay long before getting out to Khaleel Ahmad. Though he made only 22 runs in 15 balls, he holds a lot of promise to be a good batter for MI.

After losing three wickets in quick succession, the scoring rate of Mumbai Indian slumped, but Kishan at the other end was making runs with odd boundaries.

When Mumbai were set to regain the momentum, Kuldeep once again provided a break, taking Kieron Pollard's wicket.

A shorter one from Kuldeep caught Pollard off guard and the West Indies batter tried to pull it over the mid-wicket where Tim Seifert dived to his right to take a good overhead catch to end Pollard's stay. It was Kuldeep Yadav's third wicket in the match.

The fall of regular wickets did not deter Kishan at the other end as he continued to make runs, hitting the odd boundaries. He returned unbeaten 81 as Mumbai managed to post a competitive total of 177/5 in 20 overs.

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