by IANS,
Jaipur : An all-round performance by captain Shaun Pollock inspired bottom-placed Mumbai Indians shock Delhi Daredevils by 29 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) Twenty20 cricket match at the D.Y. Patil Sports Academy in Nerul here Sunday.
The famed batting line-up of the Daredevils failed for the first time in six games as they were bowled out for 133 in reply to Mumbai Indians’ total of 162 for the loss of eight wickets.
Pollock, who slammed 33 from 15 deliveries to pull his team out of trouble, then grabbed two wickets and was adjudged as the Man of the Match. Ashish Nehra was the pick of the Mumbai Indian bowlers and grabbed three wickets for 25.
Coming into the match having decimated all opposition with their explosive opening stands, the Daredevils batsmen were expected to come up with another bout of fireworks. But the opening pairing of Virendra Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir suffered an early separation when Gambhir perished in the second over to Nehra – his powerfully struck shot on the offside eliciting a sharp catch from Robin Uthappa in the covers.
Shikhar Dhawan followed suit in the next over from Pollock, attempting to drive a fullish delivery through covers and finding Robin Uthappa. Abraham de Villiers was shaping up well, hitting two fours and one six off Nehra for a quick 21 when he was unlucky to be run out, Dhawal Kulkarni getting his fingertips to a rasping straight drive from Sehwag that crashed into the stumps at the non-strikers ends to catch the South African way out of his crease.
Sehwag seemed unperturbed at the other end as he played sensibly, looking for the loose delivery to hit, and he sent two from the 10th over bowled by Sanath Jayasuriya soaring over the ropes. Ironically, it was another loose deliver from Dominic Thornely that spelled doom for the Daredevils captain.
A low full toss outside the off stump was pulled by Sehwag straight into the hands of a gleeful Pollock at midwicket.
Pollock kept rotating his bowlers, but Thornely, Nehra and Raje could not make much of an impact against Malik and Karthik, before the captain brought himself on and tasted immediate success to break the partnership that had the potential of reaching dangerous proportions. He foxed Shoaib Malik with a slower delivery and the Pakistani’s attempt to send the ball over the ropes went spiralling high before falling into the safe hands of Abhishek Nayar at long off.
The brave battle waged by Dinesh Karthik came to an end when he was trapped leg before by a ball from Dwayne Bravo that stayed low and the wicket triggered off wild celebrations which saw a chest thump between Bravo and Pollock end with both the players tumbling to the ground – but no one was complaining.
Nehra then struck a dual blow with consecutive deliveries, sending back Pradeep Sangwan and Rajat Bhatia, whose desperate heaves ended in the hands of Saurabh Tiwari and Uthappa, signalling an end to the daredevilry of Sehwag’s boys.
A lazy looking catch by Nehra at third man saw off Mohammed Asif and Glenn McGrath then departed caught by Thornely off Kulkarni.
Earlier, lack of application from the Mumbai Indian batsmen saw them perish through reckless strokes, with the big names failing to capitalize on the promising starts they made.
Openers Yogesh Takawle and Jayasuriya had the scoreboard trundling along at a fair pace, with the Sri Lankan timing the ball sweetly, hitting McGrath for a four off the front foot through covers and then getting two fours off the second over from Asif, the first a leg glance and the second a loft over cover.
Takawle, struggling initially against McGrath and Asif, got a streaky boundary off the Australian in the fifth over and then played a superb cover drive to give indications of coming into his own – but threw his wicket away in the next over to Yo Mahesh.
After Jayasuriya had hit Mahesh for a six and a four off consecutive deliveries, Takawale, too, tried to get into the act and ended up edging Mahesh to Sangwan at third man.
The next ball saw Jayasuirya get an edge that went past the wicket keeper for four, before he, too, tried one heave too many and was bowled by a ball that stayed straight and a bit low. With new man Dominic Thornely yet to get his eye in, Jayasuirya would have done well to have hung in for a while.
Thornely and Uthappa put on 50 runs for the third wicket and were looking in good nick before they, too, were bitten by the reckless bug and fell to innocuous deliveries.
Uthappa tried to scoop a ball from Pradeep Sangwan over short leg and holed out to Shoaib Malik standing behind square. Thornely was then deceived by a slower one by Rajat Bhatia, his wild swing missing the ball to be bowled.
Nayar was the next to go, losing his wicket while trying to make space to cut Sehwag on the offside and Dwayne Bravo followed soon, his attempt to step out and hoist Shoaib Malik landing in Mahesh’s hands at long on.
Pollock came good again, slamming 33 from 15 deliveries to lend some respectability to the Mumbai Indians score. The South African was particularly harsh on Asif, hitting the Pakistani for three sixes in the 19th over.