Mumbai Indians secured a victory against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday night, handing DC their first defeat of the season. The match turned dramatically in the final overs when Delhi’s batting lineup collapsed, including three run-outs in the penultimate over, as they failed to chase down the 206-run target.
Delhi seemed in control during Karun Nair and Abishek Porel’s partnership. Nair, making his first appearance in the XI this season, scored an impressive 89 runs off 40 balls and shared a 119-run partnership with Porel, who contributed 33 runs.
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The momentum shifted when Karn Sharma claimed crucial wickets, dismissing Porel, KL Rahul (15), and Tristan Stubbs (1) in quick succession.
When asked post-match about where the game slipped away, DC captain Axar Patel responded with humour to commentator Murali Karthik’s question, saying “Mumbai ke paas (went towards Mumbai).”
“We had the game in the bag. Some soft dismissals and bad shots in the middle order. You can’t leave it to the batters in the lower order everytime. Don’t need to overthink, just one of those days. Was happy at the halfway stage,” Axar told broadcasters.
The Delhi Capitals captain acknowledged that their fielding performance affected the outcome, allowing Mumbai Indians to post a total exceeding 200 runs.
However, Axar praised his spin bowling unit’s performance during the match.
“Maybe if we had caught better, we’d have kept them to a lower score. I get confidence in bowling all three of our spinners, and two of the three can also bowl in the powerplay. Kuldeep is bowling unbelievably this season. Whenever I need a wicket, I can go to him. I think there were a lot of positives today — we just need to forget about this game,” he said.
Despite the loss, Axar remained optimistic about his team’s performance, particularly highlighting Kuldeep Yadav’s impressive bowling form this season.
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