Mumbai eye playoffs after crucial win

Mumbai Indians overcame two rain interruptions to post a thrilling victory over the Delhi Daredevils and climb to fourth on the IPL 2015 points table.

Chasing 153 for a win, the Mumbai Indians slumped to 4-40 but a calm fifth wicket partnership between Rohit Sharma and Ambati Rayudu combined with some some solid hitting from Kieron Pollard saw them through to their fifth win this season with three balls to spare.

Three excellent overs from Nathan Coulter-Nile were not enough to save the match for Delhi.

The quick bowled a maiden and took a couple of wickets from his first three overs but conceded 14 runs in the 19th over.

It was the Ricky Ponting-coached Indians’ fifth win in six matches, a remarkable turnaround after losing their first four games.

Mumbai strengthened their bowling with the inclusion of Hardik Pandya in place of Unmukt Chand while Delhi Daredevils recalled Imran Tahir for Gurinder Sandhu.

Other than a half-century from Yuvraj Singh, Delhi’s batting largely let them down.

It was a matter of the batsmen not able to kick on after getting starts, combined with Harbhajan Singh winding back the clock with a four-over spell that brought back memories from those times when he was the leading off-spinner in the world.

He was declared the man-of-the-match for his 2-11 from four overs as the pressure he forced on to the Daredevils in the middle overs was chiefly instrumental in Delhi's inability to get to something bigger.

Delhi were pegged back first ball by Lasith Malinga, getting Mayank Agarwal caught behind before the in-form pair of Shreyas Iyer and captain Duminy calmed the early nerves down with their 43-run stand.

It was the Mumbai spinners who turned things in the hosts’ favour.

Harbhajan grabbed a wicket off his first ball, getting Iyer caught off a slog while an over later, Jagadeesha Suchith dived to his left to catch Duminy off his own bowling to reduce them to 3-50 in the seventh.

It was here that Delhi could have done with either of Angelo Mathews (12) or Kedar Jadhav (16) to bat out the overs. Both began well enough, but failed to give Yuvraj the support he needed.

Yuvraj’s innings was a story of two parts. After 32 balls he had scored 25 and looked the same Yuvraj who had scratched around for his 146 tournament runs at an average of less than 20.

He kept playing and missing slogs and a familiar sense of frustration seemed to be creeping among those who had watched him at his best.

Then, for those final 12 deliveries of his innings, the Yuvraj of old returned.

Image Id: ~/media/8D095215386446A28E1844AC2871BA6FYuvraj Singh returned to form // BCCI

He squeezed a four through point in the 16th over of the innings to signal some return to form before following it up with three fours from three Malinga deliveries, including a premeditated whip over mid-wicket and a drilling cover-drive to take him into his 40s.

And then off Mitchell McClenaghan, he flicked two of the more gorgeous sixes seen in this format of the game, followed up with a single to bring up his half-century.

It took a stunning catch at point from Lendl Simmons to send Yuvraj back but by then he had at least ensured his team would get to a fighting 6-152.

Mumbai were jolted early by the pair of Zaheer Khan and Coulter-Nile. Lendl Simmons was dismissed for a duck as his charge at the Aussie quick left him with only a top-edge to mid-on.

Four overs into the Mumbai innings, the game was hit by its first rain interruption with the Indians 13 runs behind the par score.

The loss of Parthiv Patel just two balls after the break pushed the target up and when their decision to send Harbhajan Singh at number five backfired, Mumbai had lost four wickets for 40.

Another rain-break followed but fortunately for Mumbai, it didn’t reduce the number of overs, allowing Rohit and Rayudu to settle in at the crease.

Run-scoring wasn’t easy, with their 50-run stand coming off 51 deliveries, but more vitally for them, they had managed to keep Pollard in the dugout till the time was just right for him to explode.

Rohit departed for 46, bowled off an Amit Mishra googly with Mumbai still 53 away from the win and 28 balls remaining.

Pollard smashed a six the second ball he faced, and then Rayudu followed it up with a six off the first ball of Zaheer’s next over to keep Mumbai within touching distance of the required run-rate.

Mathews’ 18th over cost him a boundary off each of his first and last balls but it was in the penultimate over of the innings sent down by Coulter-Nile that the game really turned in favour of Mumbai.

A length ball first up was sent into the stands by Pollard while Rayudu deliberately sliced one over point to get himself a four to collect 14 from it, leaving Imran Tahir with the task of defending only eight from the last over.

Pollard ensured there would be no last-minute heroics from the South African leggie as he closed out an impressive Mumbai victory with a six and a single.