The fixture marked a special occasion as it was MI’s annual ESA game. As many as 18,000 children from humble backgrounds were in attendance
Delhi Capitals skipper Rishabh Pant won the toss and elected to field first at the Wankhede Stadium, a venue that favours chasing teams
Openers Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan gave a blazing start, rushing to 80 runs in just 7 overs for the first wicket
Axar Patel brought Delhi Capitals back into the contest by dismissing both openers in the space of four overs
Suryakumar Yadav had a forgettable return from injury, dismissed as he was for a two-ball duck in his first game of the season
Substitute fielder Jake Fraser-McGurk timed his jump well at mid-on to send Suryakumar Yadav back, off the bowling of Anrich Nortje
Under-fire skipper Hardik Pandya found the going tough with the bat as he laboured to a 33-ball 39 and couldn’t time his shots or find the gaps
Romario Shepherd’s last-over carnage, which saw him hammering Anrich Nortje for 32 runs in 6 balls, powered Mumbai to 234/6
There was little that Shepherd could do wrong as he also gave Mumbai the first breakthrough with the ball, dismissing David Warner with a slower delivery
However, Warner’s opening partner Prithvi Shaw played a fine hand, scoring a 40-ball 66 that included 11 boundaries (8 fours, 3 sixes)
It took a scorching yorker from Jasprit Bumrah to get rid of Shaw, who walked back to the dugout in the 12th over
Youngster Abishek Porel lent able support with a 31-ball 41 and stitched partnerships before mistiming a full toss to the fielder in the deep
Tristan Stubbs (71* off 25) gave Mumbai a scare with a scorching innings and handed Shepherd a taste of his own medicine with three sixes in the penultimate over
With DC needing 42 off nine balls, Axar Patel was involved in a bizarre run out. He was caught short of his crease owing to some lazy running and nifty glovework
On a day where no other bowler conceded less than 8.50 runs an over, the ever-economical Bumrah conceded just 22 runs in four overs while picking two wickets
The win marked Hardik Pandya’s first triumph as full-time skipper of Mumbai Indians and will take some weight off his shoulders