In what was a hat-trick of run-fests at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in IPL 2024, opener Jake Fraser-McGurk continued his good showing by slamming a sensational 84 while Rasikh Salam shone with 3-34 in propelling Delhi Capitals to a 10-run win against Mumbai Indians here on Saturday.
Under Delhi’s blazing sun, Fraser McGurk excelled by hitting eleven fours and six sixes at a strike-rate of 311.11 in his 27-ball knock, including getting his fifty in 15 balls. Supporting him was Tristan Stubbs, who struck six fours and two sixes in his 25-ball 48 not out at the back end of the innings.
Abishek Porel, Shai Hope and captain Rishabh Pant chipped in with sizeable contributions as DC hit 17 maximums in what is also their highest score ever in the IPL.
In reply, Rasikh’s 3-34 and Mukesh Kumar’s 3-54, along with Khaleel Ahmed’s 2-45 restricted Mumbai to 247/9 in 20 overs, securing a narrow win for DC. Tilak Varma (63), Hardik Pandya (46) and Tim David (37) gave Mumbai Indians hope of chasing down the target. But in the end, their efforts were not enough.
With Saturday’s win, DC got their fifth victory in the competition and have jumped ahead of defending champions Chennai Super Kings to now be in fifth place in the points table with 10 points from as many games, while MI are stuck in ninth place.
Fraser-McGurk began by whipping off his wrists to take a four off Luke Wood in the gap between mid-wicket and mid-on. With his still frame and beautiful wristwork, Fraser-McGurk smashed two more fours and a six to take 19 runs off the opening over.
He welcomed Bumrah by dispatching his slower ball over long-on for six and drilled a drive on the free-hit ball for four. Fraser-McGurk ended the over by swiping Bumrah for a four to take 18 runs off the second over.
He would smack Nuwan Thushara for three fours, before getting his fifty in 15 balls with a slog-sweep off Piyush Chawla over deep mid-wicket. After hitting Chawla for another four, Fraser-McGurk hit Hardik Pandya for two fours and as many sixes, before Bumrah conceded only three runs in the last over of Power-play as DC signed off from the phase at 92/0.
Hardik was carted for runs again as Fraser-McGurk and Porel struck four and two sixes collectively in the seventh over to bring up DC’s hundred. Fraser-McGurk’s fun came to an end when he was cramped for room on a heave against Chawla and gave a simple catch to mid-wicket, falling for 27-ball 84.
After Porel was stumped off Nabi in the tenth over, MI felt they would become successful in applying brakes on DC’s innings. But Shai Hope had other ideas, smacking five delightful sixes before flicking straight to deep mid-wicket off Luke Wood to fall for a 17-ball 41.
Pant continued DC’s attacking tempo by heaving and whipping Thushara for four and six respectively, before pulling Chawla for a boundary and flicking Bumrah off his wrists for six, before pulling a slower bouncer to deep backward square leg, making it the seventh time he fell to Bumrah in T20s.
From the other end, after driving a Thushara full-toss for four, Stubbs greeted Luke Wood with consecutive scoops for boundaries. He then brought out the reverse scoop on successive occasions to pick a six and four respectively.
Stubbs would end the 18th over by pulling back-to-back for boundaries off slower balls as 26 runs came off it. He and Axar Patel took a pulled six each off Thushara in the final over to take DC past 250.
In reply, Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma hit five boundaries between themselves – four of them hit by the former. Khaleel took out a scratchy Rohit when he got him to slice to mid-off. Ishan soon went back to the pavilion after miscuing a loft to mid-off against Mukesh.
Impact player Suryakumar Yadav looked dangerous when he brought out his wristy flick, glance, cut, one-handed loft and slice to make a 13-ball 26, before lobbing a catch to cover off a slower off-cutter from Khaleel as MI ended the Power-play at 65/3, marking it the third time they lost three wickets in the six-over phase of IPL 2024.
Hardik kept MI in the hunt by hitting Kuldeep Yadav for three fours and a six to collect 19 runs off the ninth over before Tilak lofted and reverse-swept Axar Patel for six and four respectively in the tenth over. Hardik pulled and sliced Mukesh for six and four respectively, before miscuing a slog to mid-wicket off a slower ball from impact player Rasikh.
Two balls later, Rasikh took out Nehal Wadhera, who nicked behind to Pant. Tilak was at his proactive best in taking 21 runs off Kuldeep in the 15th over – pulling and lofting for a brace of sixes, before heaving and reverse-sweeping for two fours. Tilak reached his fifty in 25 balls by heaving Lizaad Williams over fine leg for four.
With 64 runs needed from the last three overs, David dispatched Mukesh for two sixes over long-on fence and a pulled four. Pant came up to the stumps and it worked as Mukesh had David trapped plumb lbw. But Tilak ended the 23-run over by glancing a Mukesh full toss over backward square leg for six.
The equation came down to 41 runs off the last 12 balls, and Rasikh struck by having Mohammad Nabi hole out to long-on in a 16-run 19th over. Tilak’s run-out on the first ball of the final over and Chawla holing out to long-on the last ball ensured DC got their second straight win in Delhi.
Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 257/4 in 20 overs (Jake-Fraser McGurk 84, Tristan Stubbs 48 not out; Mohammad Nabi 1-20, Jasprit Bumrah 1-35) beat Mumbai Indians 247/9 in 20 overs (Tilak Varma 63, Hardik Pandya 46; Rasikh Salam 3-34, Mukesh Kumar 3-59) by 10 runs
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