XtraTime Web Desk – Thursday saw the first qualifier match of this year’s IPL between the defending champions Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals.
Batting first, Mumbai Indians had a blistering start, even though their Captain Rohit Sharma was out on a duck, Quinton De Kock and Suryakumar Yadav gave Mumbai Indians the perfect start. Suryakumar scored a half-century but was dismissed at 51 but Ishan Kishan and Hardik Pandya reminded everyone why Mumbai Indians are the defending champions. The duo scored 60 runs in the last 23 deliveries and Mumbai Indians finished on 200 after 20 overs. Ishan Kishan scored 55 of 30 deliveries while Hardik Pandya scored 37 of just 14 deliveries.
Delhi Capitals had the worst of the starts in this year’s IPL. Three players were out on a duck as they lost 3 wickets on 0 run mark. Marcus Stoinis scored 65 runs and Axar Patel contributed 42 runs but no one else contributed anything significant. Jasprit Bumrah took 4 wickets and gave away just 4 runs his 4 overs while Trent Boult took 2 wickets in his 2 overs. With this dominating performance, Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by 57 runs and reached to the finals of IPL 2020.
Jasprit Bumrah was chosen the Man of the Match award for his brilliant bowling. In the post match conference, Bumrah humbly said, “I am okay with not getting wickets and winning the tournament, I have been given a role so I just want to execute that role”.
Speaking about his partnership with Boult, Bumrah said, “I have a great camaraderie with Boult. We discuss fields, situations, so there’s a lot to learn from him.”
Rohit Sharma was delighted with this performance from his players. In the post match conference, Rohit said, “I guess this is the best performance. The way de Kock and SKY took the momentum after I got out early was good to see. Perfect result for us”.
Trent Boult was not seen after suffering from a niggle during the match. Rohit gave a update about him saying, “I’ve not seen him. But he seems okay. I don’t think it’s a big problem. Three day rest and he should be back on the park.”
Shreyas Iyer, the losing captain in the post match conference said, “ I don’t want to speak negatively about the team, but going forward it’s important to come with a strong mindset. It’s never too late, and we’ll see to it that we come back strongly.”
Speaking about Ravi Ashwin’s performance, the captain said, “Ravi Ashwin was a positive for us tonight – he plays around with the batsmen’s head a lot, really good to have him in the team, and he’s quite an asset for us, especially me as a captain”.