DD leg-spinners knock MI out of IPL 2018

Amit Mishra (left) and Rishabh Pant were 2 heroes of the match AFP

Delhi Daredevils (DD) were the first team to be knocked out of IPL 2018 Playoffs. As predicted by most midway through the league stage, DD finished at the table but not before playing party-spoilers for defending champions Mumbai Indians (MI), knocking them out of IPL 2018. A win would have been enough for Mumbai to have a foot (if not both feet) on the Playoffs but the Delhi leg-spinners denied them the same. Sandeep Lamichhane (4-0-36-3) and Player of the Match Amit Mishra (4-0-19-3) restricted Mumbai to 163 in their chase of 175 to hand the hosts 10 points in the tournament.

DD survived a Ben Cutting scare to register their fifth win of the tournament. With 24 required of the final 2 overs, Cutting gave DD a scare before falling in the final over for a 20-ball 37.

Defending 175, DD opened with Lamichhane. He dropped the first ball short and the in-form Suryakumar Yadav latched on to the opportunity and pulled him for a four. Six and two followed next before Surya was foxed by a googly and gave away his wicket.

Evin Lewis took charge in the third over, hammering Harshal Patel for 17 (1 six, 2 fours) and took 16 off the next over, from Glenn Maxwell. Just when MI seemed to have gained an upper hand in the contest, Mishra struck with his first ball, right after the Powerplay overs. Ishan Kishan tried to clear long-on and found Vijay Shankar.

Mumbai promoted Kieron Pollard ahead of Rohit Sharma, who injured his shoulder while trying to nab on to a catch. Pollard was dropped 3 balls later off Mishra by Prithvi Shaw at slip. In fact, DD dropped as many as three catches in the first 8 overs: captain Shreyas Iyer dropped Lewis, Shaw dropped Pollard, and Abhishek Sharma dropped a tough chance at gully.

Lewis, at the other end, kept clearing ropes. He had smacked Mishra for one in the ninth over. Trying to repeat the act the next ball, he perished to a googly with Pant completing a neat stumping.

There began the MI collapse.

Lamichhane was called to bowl the 10th over of the innings and Pollard went after him straight away. He got the arc to swing his willow and sweetly connected it before getting done by Maxwell's brilliance. In a repeat act of the Mayank Agarwal-Manoj Tiwary feat, Maxwell sprinted from long-on and stopped the flat-trajectory hit; he caught the ball but realised the momentum would push him past the ropes. Meanwhile, Trent Boult had run in from long-off and was metres apart. Maxwell lobbed the ball to Boult and Pollard walked back.

Krunal Pandya departed 3 balls later, lobbing a Lamichhane googly against the turn to cover-point. Mumbai had lost half their side inside 10 overs, for 78.

Rohit and Hardik Pandya got MI brought in the game with a partnership of 43. They were aided by some poor fielding from DD. Then, with M needing 54 off 38, Maxwell and Boult combined to enact an a near-carbon-copy of the Pollard dismissal, this time to send back Rohit. Mishra beat Hardik in the air in the next over as MI slid further. Cutting tried hard, especially in the 18th over, bowled by Liam Plunkett, but it was not enough.

Earlier in the day, electing to bat, DD rode high on Rishabh Pant's 44-ball 64. Pant's innings was laced with 4 fours and 4 sixes. He became the only cricketer to have hit a hundred boundaries in IPL 2018; reclaimed the Orange Cap with 684 runs; and registered the most runs by a wicketkeeper in a single IPL season. With DD already out of race for Playoffs, Pant's phenomenal season with the bat ends here.

Brief scores:

Delhi Daredevils 174 for 4 in 20 overs [Rishabh Pant 64 (44), Vijay Shankar 43 (30)] beat Mumbai Indians 163 all out in 19.3 overs [Evin Lewis 48 (31), Ben Cutting 37 (20); Sandeep Lamichhane 4-0-36-3, Harshal Patel 2.3-0-28-3, Amit Mishra 4-0-19-3] by 11 runs.

Player of the Match: Amit Mishra.

Full Scorecard