IPL 2019: Match 3, MI vs DC - Who Said What

Mumbai Indians (MI) have once again failed to register a victory in their first game of the season. They lost to the Delhi Capitals (DC) this time in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Wankhede stadium by 37 runs. Rishabh Pant was the home team’s nemesis as he smashed an unbeaten 78 off just 27 deliveries with seven fours and as many sixes to propel his team to a mammoth total batting first.

After being put in to bat first, Delhi got off to a poor start with Prithvi Shaw and their skipper Shreyas Iyer back in the hut very soon. At 29/2, things weren’t looking good for them. But Colin Ingram and Shikhar Dhawan steadied the ship to shift the momentum towards their team. However, the knockout and brutal punch came from Pant. He literally dominated every delivery apart from the couple which he faced.

Delhi Capitals posted 213 runs for the loss of six wickets after 20 overs with only Mitchell McClenaghan picking three wickets for Mumbai Indians while the other bowlers hunting the leather most of the times.

Yuvi stars in the losing cause

The hosts needed a grand knock from their captain Rohit Sharma. But he was the first to get out in the chase and then Quinton de Kock and Suryakumar Yadav also followed him. At 45/3, things looked awry for them. But Yuvraj Singh joined hands with Kieron Pollard to pummel the bowling for some time and kept the team in the hunt. However, Pollard and Hardik Pandya fell in successive overs which effectively sealed the game.

Though Yuvi won the hearts by playing some sublime strokes as he also slammed a half-century to eventually get out on 53 off 35 balls. Krunal Pandya, the birthday boy, tried his best but the target was a little too much for their liking and Mumbai Indians could only reach 176 runs falling short of the target by 37 runs.

Man of the Match, Rishabh Pant said:

It’s been a great journey, trying to learn every day in my cricketing career. Always a great feeling when you score runs and the team wins. I always bat according to the situation all the time.

Today when I came in, I had to up the ante and so took my chances. It came off tonight. [On his unorthodox batting] Especially in T20, you have to do something different. Sometimes when bowlers cramp you for room, you got to make your own room. [On batting at 5) Well, glad to bat anywhere the team wants me to.

Delhi Capitals skipper, Shreyas Iyer said:

Both of them were good in their own way but a good start with the name Delhi Capitals, so would like to stick to it. I was really prepared to take down captaincy as I had been leading India A team as well as my domestic teams. So, I was getting used to leading different personalities.

We had been preparing and training well for the season. There isn’t any secret but when he came here, the training ticked all the boxes. Our preparation was amazing and the team atmosphere is really great as well. Important for us to be consistent.

[Talking about Pant] He is a really destructive batsman, that’s the only thing I can say about him. He has matured over the years. Today, he played four dot balls early on and then just took them apart. That’s where the maturity comes in.

He’s an amazing character to be with. Yesterday after the nets, he (Kagiso Rabada) asked me ‘Did you see me bowl?’ and I told him that he wasn’t bowling at his full tilt. He said ‘I am reserving the energy for the game.

Mumbai Indians skipper, Rohit Sharma said:

First game is always challenging for most of the teams because there are lot of new players in the squad. We made a lot of mistakes today and that was the reason we lost the match. We were in the game in the first 10 overs while bowling but the way Rishabh batted, we have to give the credit to him.

We missed our lengths and failed to execute our plans but that can happen as there are lot of new guys in the squad and understanding takes a bit of time. But having said that we are all professional cricketers and we need to learn from our mistake as quickly as possible.

We had 6 bowling options today. We didn’t play another spinner because I thought pitch will do something for the pacers. They had lot of left-handers in the squad so I was not convinced that leg spinner will bowl full four overs.

We were very really clear about how we want to approach the game. The combination might change in the next match that will depend on the opposition. I think the pitch was good. It was coming onto the bat nicely. We still ended up scoring 180.

Nobody went onto to score a big score. Yuvi batted brilliantly. If someone would have made 70+ in the top four then things would have been different.

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