Mumbai: Mumbai Indians defeated Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets and helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to qualify for IPL playoffs in the 69th match at Wankhede Stadium here on Saturday.
The MI made RCB fans ecstatic. From the word go, they were behind MI and their boys did not let them down. DC Captain Rishabh Pant's eyes were downcast, but he could not blame anyone but himself.
Pant dropped a sitter off Dewald Brevis who made 37 off 33 balls with one boundary and three sixes, and didn't refer a nick of Tim David's bat to the TV umpire. The Singapore-based Australian grabbed the opportunity and scored 34 off 11 balls with two boundaries and 4 sixes.
Pant may not forget these ugly moments for years to come as he let down his teammates.
Chasing 160 runs target, MI got off to a really slow start as Rohit Sharma (2 off 13) struggled against the new ball, but Ishan Kishan (48 off 35 balls with 3 boundaries and 4 sixes) and Brevis put a decent partnership of 52 runs for the second wicket to shift the momentum towards their favour.
Then David walked in and his pyrotechnics snatched the game away from DC's grasp. MI kept losing wickets at regular intervals, but his knock proved to be a match defining one.
Ramandeep Singh, who remained unbeaten with 13 off 6 balls, got the winning runs by scoring a boundary of Khaleel Ahmed.
Anrich Nortje and Shardul Thakur bagged two wickets each and Kuldeep Yadav scalped one.
Earlier, DC were content with 159, especially after the hole in which they were in. David Warner (5) went early and Jasprit Bumrah removed Mitchell Marsh for first-ball naught.
Suddenly DC were reduced to 31 for 3 after Bumrah hurled a ripping short ball to Prithvi Shaw (24 off 23). Soon it became 50 for 4 when Sarfaraz Khan (10) also walked back to the dugout.
Rovman Powell (43 off 34) and Rishabh Pant (39 off 33), however, checked their natural instincts and tried to steady the innings.
In an over of one over Hrithik Shokeen, DC batsmen turned the heat and plundered 20 runs, but MI brought the match back in their favour and bagged the wickets of Pant and Powell at the death, with the help of Bumrah's hard work.
Axar Patel (19 off 10) did crack a couple of sixes in his short stay, but DC perhaps felt they were about 10 short of a good score.
To MI's credit, they just conceded 34 runs in the last 4 overs and DC failed to cross 170 to 180 that they were hoping for.
Bumrah was splendid with the ball. He picked up 3 wickets for 26 runs and Ramandeep Singh scalped two wickets with Daniel Sams and Mayank Markande bagging a wicket each.
This will be the eighth playoffs for RCB. The Royal Challengers Bangalore has qualified for the playoffs seven times before this since the inception of the cash-rich league in 2008. (UNI)
