Mumbai, May 21 (IANS) Mumbai Indians stormed into the Playoffs as Mitchell Santner and Jasprit Bumrah claimed three wickets apiece to help bundle out Delhi Capitals for 121 on a slightly sluggish pitch for a commanding 59-run victory in Match 63 of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
Delhi Capitals fought well with the ball till the 18th over as they kept Mumbai Indians in check. But Suryakumar Yadav hammered a 43-ball 73, and Naman Dhir (24* off 8) blasted 48 runs in the last two overs to help Mumbai reach 180/5 in 20 overs.
The five-time champions came back strongly with the ball, used the conditions superbly, and with Santner picking 3-11 and Bumrah bagging 3-12, bundled out Delhi Capitals for 121 in 18.2 overs to win by 59 runs.
Mumbai Indians, who had a forgettable campaign in 2024 and had started with one win in five matches this season and were languishing at the ninth spot at one time, scripted a Houdini to turn around things with a six-match unbeaten run as they clinched a well-deserved spot in the playoffs. They moved to 16 points with a match to play and cemented their hold on the fourth spot, joining Gujarat Titans, Punjab Kings, and Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the knockout stage.
Delhi Capitals missed their captain, Axar atel a lot as he would have loved bowling on this wicket and could have helped them restrict Mumbai Indians to a smaller total. But that was not to be again as Delhi lost their way after making a strong start, which has been the story of their IPL 2025 campaign.
Delhi got off to a poor start and were 49/3 at the end of the Power-play. Deepak Chahar struck in the second over as stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis departed, trying to blast a slower one on the length but ended up offering a tame catch to Mitchell Santner.
K.L. Rahul, Delhi Capitals’ best batter this season, surprisingly came in as an Impact Substitute, struck two boundaries in his six-ball 11 before Boult did him in, extracting an edge behind with a scrambled seam delivery as the batter skips down the pitch but could manage only an agricultural swipe.
From 20/2, Delhi Capitals continued to stumble, as Will Jacks struck in the fifth over, getting Abhishek Porel for six with a neat stumping, ruled by DRS on review, as the Englishman drew the batter with a looped-up delivery.
The dew was expected to
Vipraj Nigam struck a couple of boundaries and a six but was the fourth to go as he was caught by Santner off his own bowling. Jasprit Bumrah then produced a superb delivery, a slower one on the length that trapped Tristan Stubbs plumb in front as another DRS decision went in favour of the home team.
With half of their batters in the dugout for 65 runs, DC were hanging by a rope that was thinning with each minute. Sameer Rizvi played a small cameo, hitting 39 off 35 balls, laced with six fours and one six, before becoming Santner’s second victim of the day. The New Zealand spinner completed his three-fer by luring Ashutosh Sharma out with a superb delivery for an easy stumping as the batter was beaten all ends up.
Bumrah grabbed his second wicket, castling a clueless debutant Madhav Tiwari (3) as Delhi Capitals lost steam.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 180/5 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 73 not out, Tilak Varma 27, Naman Dhir 24 not out; Mukesh Kumar 2-48, Kuldeep Yadav 1-22) beat Delhi Capitals 121 all out in 18.2 overs (Sameer Rizvi 39; Mitchell Santner 3-11, Jasprit Bumrah 3-12) by 59 runs.
–IANS
bsk/
*Except for the headings & sub-headings, this story has not been edited by The enewstime.in and has been published from IANS feed.
