Delhi demolish Mumbai

News

Cricket365
April 17, 2012

The Daredevils made light work of Mumbai on Monday, beating them by seven wickets to move to the top of the Indian Premier League table.

An inept batting display from the Indians, which saw only two of their batsmen reach double figures, left the Daredevils a target of just 93 and it was never going to be much of a challenge for Virender Sehwag and company.

The Delhi captain, who made 32 from 36 balls, and fellow opener Naman Ojha gave the visitors a solid 34-run first-wicket stand before the latter hit RP Singh to short midwicket.

Kevin Pietersen made nine before he became Singh's second wicket when his attempted pull ended up at midwicket.

By the time Sehwag holed out to long-on, the game was all but over. Mahela Jayawardene and Ross Taylor completed the formalities for Delhi.

Mumbai, though, will no doubt need to sort out the batting problems before their next game. They were down two wickets already in the fourth over as openers Davy Jacobs and Richard Levi were both bowled by slow left-armer Shahbaz Nadeem after going for slog shots.

Rohit Sharma tried to dig in, but the wickets kept tumbling at the other end with Umesh Yadav getting the prized scalp of Kieron Pollard after the West Indian sliced a ball to the man on the cover boundary.

Sharma eventually fell for 29 from 27 balls when he hit Ajit Agarkar to deep backward square leg. Skipper Harbhajan Singh then salvaged a small bit of pride with 33 from 22 balls.

However, it was not enough to help his side to a defendable total as Nadeem, Morne Morkel, Agarkar and Yadav all finished with two wickets apiece in Mumbai's 92-all out effort.

The result sees the Daredevils join Rajasthan Royals, Pune Warriors and Mumbai on six points, but the Delhi outfit are top of the log thanks to their better net-run rate.