Match Review of Mumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils

Indian Premier League
Date 7th May 2011
TeamsMumbai Indians vs Delhi Daredevils
Match no. 49
VenueEden Gardens, Kolkatta.
Umpires Asad Rauf and Paul Reifel Third Umpire: S.Asnani
Toss Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat

Playing XI

Mumbai Indians Adien Blizzard Sachin Tendulkar © Ambati Rayadu T. Suman Keiron Pollard Andrew Symonds Munaf Patel Lasith Mallinga Harbhajan Singh Rohit Sharma Dhawal Kulkarni

Delhi Daredevils David Warner Virender Sehwag © Naman Ojha Venugopal Rao Travis Birt Yogesh Nagar Irfan Pathan Morne Morkel R. Van der Merwe Ajit Agarkar Umesh Yadav

The Delhi Daredevils squaring off against the Mumbai Indians in the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. Both team's performance has been poles apart. Mumbai Indians have mostly been topping the table and Delhi Daredevils have been stationed at the bottom.

Mumbai Indians have been playing as a cohesive unit and has great match winners. The bowling attack comprising of Malinga, Harbhajan & Patel are capable of removing the top players and putting the opposition under pressure. On the contrary, Delhi Daredevil's too much dependence on the openers Sehwag and Warner is well known to all other teams and has been exploited by them to maximum. The Daredevil's were up against the best team of this season and they needed to put their act together and come out all guns blazing against the booming Indians.

The pitch looked conductive for both batsmen as well as the bowlers anything above 170 looked a winning total. Sehwag was lucky with toss and keeping the dew the factor in mind, decided to put opposition to bat.

The Indian openers Tendulkar and Blizzard came out with a clear cut strategy to attack the Daredevil's bowling. Morkel, the strike bowler for the Daredevils proved very expensive and conceded too many runs in his opening spell. The Indians had a fabulous start and the openers put up a partnership of 50 runs of just 32 balls. Irfan Pathan gave his team the 1st breakthrough when he removed Tendulkar after scoring 14 runs. Soon the dangerous looking Blizzard was removed by Nadeem after scoring 37 runs in just 23 balls hitting eight 4's.

Rayadu and Sharma were the two men in but they did not seem to be in any sort of pressure and kept whacking the ball to utilize the great start given by their openers. They put up a fabulous partnership of 87 runs and took the total to 141 runs in the 15th over. At this stage Sharma lost his wicket to Morkel after scoring 49 runs in just 32 balls with two 4's and three 6's. Boundaries kept coming thick and fast and the Indians maintained a run-rate of above 8 all through. Rayadu on the other end was just unstoppable and was hitting a boundary every over. Rayadu got out hit wicket after scoring a sparkling 59 of 39 deliveries. Pollard and Symonds finished the Indians innings on 172/4.

173 to win with a required run rate of above 8 was always going to be a challenging total for the Daredevils. Sehwag & Warner were required to play a major role to make it a successful run chase. Harbhajan Singh opened the bowling for Indians, and gave them the 1st breakthrough by removing Warner in the 1st over itself. Ingram who was included in the team to give batting more strength was the next man in. Mallinga who came to bowl from the other end removed Ingram in the 2nd over. The Daredevils were 2 wickets down for 4 runs.

It seems to be compulsion for the Daredevils to include wicket-keeper Naman Ojha, who has been a failure all through, in playing XI as they don't have a stand by specialist keeper. Repeating his horrible form, he was the next man to get out in the 3rd over of Munaf Patel. This over from Patel proved fatal for the Daredevils as he was able to remove their only hope Sehwag on a soft dismissal. Their scorecard looked a sorry state of affair with 4 wickets down at a total of 7 runs. The run chase completely slipped out of their hands.

Rao and Hopes were the two men in. They both have played some useful innings for their side. It would have taken a valiant effort from them to bail out the Daredevils out of this mess. They put up a 87 runs stand in 65 balls to take the score to a respectable total before Rao was clean bowled by Kulkarni. Irfaan Pathan and Hopes stayed at the crease for some time. Hopes unfortunately got run out when after scoring 55 runs of 44 balls. With the tail-enders coming in and going back quick, the Daredevils were bold out on a total of 146 runs Mumbai Indians completely outclassed the Daredevils and completed a comprehensive 32 runs victory.

Result: Mumbai Indians won by 32 runs.

The Awards

Man of the match
Ambati Rayadu for his fantastic innings of 59 runs

Maximum Sixes
Rohit Sharma for hitting 3 sixes

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Daredevils.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians

Question of the day
Does Mumbai Indian team completely rely on Mallinga?



Last Updated on 9 May 2011