• Rickelton plays key role in Mumbai victory

    Published on

    Ryan Rickelton helped the Mumbai Indians beat the Delhi Capitals by 12 runs in the IPL on Sunday.

    Chasing 206 for victory, Delhi looked to be cruising at 135-2 when Karun Nair departed on 89 and leg-spinner Karn Sharma soon triggered a collapse to bowl out the hosts for 193 in their home Feroz Shah Kotla ground.

    It was Delhi’s first defeat after four wins in this edition of the T20 tournament. Five-time champions Mumbai got back to winning ways with just their second victory in six matches.

    Needing 23 runs off the last 12 balls, Ashutosh Sharma raised hopes with two boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah but the last three balls of the 19th over threw up three run-outs as Mumbai celebrated.

    The win dampened the return of Delhi’s Nair, who hit a valiant knock off 40 balls in his first IPL match after three years.

    The 33-year-old came in as an impact substitute with Delhi on 0-1 after Jake Fraser-McGurk fell to the first ball of the team’s chase.

    Nair, who hit an unbeaten 303 against England in a home Test in 2016 but soon lost favour with the selectors, reached his fifty – first after seven years in IPL – off 22 balls to set up the chase in a stand off 119 with Abhishek Porel.

    Karn, coming in as impact player, broke the stand as he cut short left-hander Porel’s 33-run knock, and soon left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner bowled Nair to hurt Delhi.

    Karn dismissed Tristan Stubbs for one and then caught and bowled KL Rahul for 15 as Delhi lost their way.

    Earlier, Tilak Varma smashed 59 and put on a key stand with Naman Dhir, who hit an unbeaten 38, to help Mumbai reach 205-5.

    Rickleton, who hit 41 off 25 balls, put on a brisk opening stand with fellow opener Rohit Sharma to set the pace.

    Rohit made 18 but failed to convert his start after being trapped lbw off Vipraj Nigam, and extend his batting flop in this season of the IPL. He has 56 runs from five matches.

    Rickleton kept up the runs with Suryakumar Yadav, who hit 40 off 28 balls, before being bowled by left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav.

    Suryakumar’s entry made Varma change gears as he went after the bowling as the two hammered 60 runs.

    Kuldeep claimed his second wicket to send back Suryakumar and Nigam dismissed captain Hardik Pandya in the next over but the runs kept coming.

    The left-handed Varma, who departed in the last over, then took the total past 200 with the help of Dhir.

    © Agence France-Presse

    Photo: Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images

    Post by

    Simon Borchardt