Boom-boom Pollard helps Mumbai thump Delhi

Mumbai: Kieron Pollard’s all-round show helped the Mumbai Indians thump Delhi Daredevils by 39 runs in an Indian Premier League game played here at the Brabourne Stadium on Tuesday.

The burly West Indian smashed 45 runs off just 13 deliveries including 2 fours and 5 towering sixes to power Mumbai to a challenging 183/4 and then came back to concede just 15 runs off his 4 overs at an economy rate of 3.75

None of the Delhi batsmen got going with Andrew McDonald ending up as the highest scorer with 31. For Mumbai, Dilhara Fernando and Ali Murtaza took two wickets each.

Chasing 184 to win, Daredevils suffered an early blow as they lost the wicket of David Warner in the 4th over. Warner was caught by Murtaza off Fernando for 31.

Harbhajan Singh rose to the occasion yet again as he sent back dangerman Gautam Gambhir for just 17.

Moments after Gambhir’s dismissal, the visitors received another deadly blow as they lost Virender Sehwag for 19. Sehwag was run-out while attempting a quick second run.

Ali Murtaza captured his first wicket of the match as he caught AB de Villiers plumb in front of the wickets to reduce Delhi to 85/4.

The Delhi team continued to struggle with their running between the wickets with Paul Collingwood (2) running out of steam.

Wickets continued to fall in a heap as Delhi slumped from 75/2 to 94/6. Dinesh Karthik was the sixth wicket down after he was cleaned up by Murtaza for 11.

Amit Mishra joined his mates in the dressing room after his furniture was disturbed by a Fernando full-toss that reduced Delhi to 120/7.

Mumbai Innings

Earlier, Sachin Tendulkar (30) was among the runs once again while Saurabh Tiwary also chipped in with 38. Pradeep Sangwan was the most successful bowler for Delhi with 2 wickets.

The last 5 overs produced 75 with 25 coming off the last over of the innings bowled by Andrew McDonald.

Having won the toss and elected to bat first, the opening duo of Tendulkar and Chandan Madan took Mumbai off to a steady start, taking the score to the 40 run mark in little time.

Madan became the first Mumbai batsman to take the long walk back to the pavilion after he was caught by Amit Mishra off McDonald for 15 off an attempted pull gone wrong.

Despite losing the wicket of Madan, the Mumbai Indians eclipsed the 50-run mark in the 7th over on their innings.

Sangwan claimed the most important wicket of the match as he sent back Sachin Tendulkar just when the master blaster was threatening to take the game away from the Daredevils.

Sachin holed out to AB de Villiers at extra cover for 30 as he tried to hit a ball inside out.

Saurabh Tiwary and Ambati Rayudu ensured that the scoreboard kept ticking even after the dismissal of master blaster Sachin Tendulkar as they took the score past the 100-run mark.

Moments after crossing 100, Saurabh Tiwary was sent back to the pavilion by Pradeep Sangwan for 38 as they Mumbai southpaw tried to play a cheeky shot but missed the line completely and had his stumps broken.

Ambati Rayudu became the fourth Mumbai Indians wicket to fall as he departed while trying to lift the scoring rate. Rayudu was out caught by AB de Villiers at long-on off Ashish Nehra for 24.

Both the teams had made sweeping changes to their playing XI. For Delhi, Daniel Vettori, Farveez Maharoof, Mithun Manhas and Rajat Bhatia were out and in came AB de Villiers, Andrew McDonald, Pradeep Sangwan and Sarabjeet Ladda.

For Mumbai, Lasith Malinga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Dhawal Kulkarni and R Sathish were out and in came Dilhara Fernando, Dwayne Bravo, Ali Murtaza and Chandan Madan.

Teams:

Mumbai Indians: Sachin Tendulkar(c), Ambati Rayudu, Saurabh Tiwary, Jean-Paul Duminy, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard, Chandan Madan(w), Harbhajan Singh, Murtaza Ali, Zaheer Khan, Dilhara Fernando

Delhi Daredevils: David Warner, Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir(c), AB de Villiers, Paul Collingwood, Dinesh Karthik(w), Andrew McDonald, Sarabjit Ladda, Amit Mishra, Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Sangwan