The league stages of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 turned out to be a monumental success. The cricketing extravaganza is set to amplify its excitement factor with the action moving to the Playoff stage.
The first Qualifier was hosted between the two best teams in the round-robin stage, namely Mumbai Indians (MI) and Delhi Capitals (DC) at Dubai on Thursday.
It was the four-time champions, MI, who flexed their muscle with an all-round show and defeated the Capitals by a massive margin of 57 runs. Thereby, helping themselves book a berth of the final for the sixth time in tournament’s history.
DC captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opt to bowl first. They conceded a monumental total of 200/5 in their 20 overs.Quinton de Kock (40 off 25) started off the proceedings for MI with his effervescent knock.
The South African wicket-keeper batsman, along with Surya Kumar Yadav (51 off 38) took the onus on themselves, to take their side to a daunting total, after the early wicket of skipper Rohit Sharma (0).
The MI captain registered his 13th duck in IPL career as Ravichandran Ashwin (3/29) dismissed the ‘Hitman’ for the third time in the tournament’s history.
With the score at 101/4 and the loss of Kieron Pollard’s (0) wicket, it appeared as if MI won’t be able to reach a 180+ total.
However, the decisive knock of the innings came from young Ishan Kishan (55* off 30) and Hardik Pandya (37 off 14), who took the score to 200 with their power-hitting. The duo hit eight maximums and four boundaries between themselves.
Chasing 201, DC lost the game in the first two overs itself, with the score reading at 0-3, and their cream back in the hut. Trent Boult (9/2) did the damage upfront by picking the wickets of Prithvi Shaw (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (0).
Jasprit Bumrah bowled the best spell of his T20 career, with figures of 4/14, to take the game further away from the Capitals.
A rearguard action from Marcus Stoinis (65 off 46) and Axar Patel (42 off 33) threatened a twist in the tail for DC. Moreover, the defending champions were clinical enough to complete an emphatic victory.
Brief Scores
Mumbai Indians – 200/5 in 20 overs (Kishan 55*, Ashwin 3/29) beat Delhi Capitals 143/8 in 20 overs (Stoinis 65, Stoinis 65) by 57 runs.
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