The Mumbai Indians (MI) became the first side to qualify for the playoffs. They managed to swat aside the Delhi Capital (DC) team in the 1st qualifier and gave themselves a chance to win the 5th IPL tournament title.
This MI team were asked to first bat. This means the bowlers of this team had to deal with the nuisance of dew in the second half of the game. This disadvantage was neutralized by their batsmen as they managed to make a ‘good’ total of 200 runs for 5 wickets.
The MI team faced an early jolt when Ashwin managed to find the turn with the new ball. He pinned Sharma in front of the stumps for a duck. De Kock and Yadav managed to keep going after the bowlers in the powerplay. Daniel Sams was driven by de Kock through mid-on for fours and Ashwin was drilled through the covers.
ShimronHetmeyer and Sams were picked by the DC team in the XI so that Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje could be held back. Sams conceded 15 runs in his very first over and this made the DC team bring on Nortje and Rabada a little earlier.
Yadav got into the groove with a shot that can be termed ‘dismissive’ and pulled 4 off Nortje. After this he went in for a paused-and-delivered off-break from Ashwin for 6 runs. De Kock and Yadav continued picking their spots and pushed the MI team to 63 runs for the loss of 1 wicket in the powerplay.
Ashwin once again:
Ashwin had to clear a fitness test for this qualifying match as he was going through a hamstring injury. Despite this, he bowled with rhythm and got the ball to drift, dip and turn. De Kock charged at him in the 8th over, but Ashwin managed to find a sharp dip and coaxed a catch to the long-off.
In the next over, which was the 13th over, he was against Kieron Pollard. The first ball of Ashwin to him was a carrom ball and this ball was riven by Pollard for a duck.
The Chase that Was not there:
Boult managed to bowl only 2 overs before he left the field but he had enough time to grab 2 wickets. Bumrah, on the other hand, took the other 3 of the top five of the DC team. The DC team was in danger of being in a score of less than 100, after Krunal managed to get Pant out. Stoinis and Patel could help them avoid this disaster by putting up 77 runs off 44 balls for the 6th wicket. Bumrah could snap this stand at the time he bowled Stoinis for 65 runs in the 16th over. Bumrah finished off with 4 for 14, the DC team with 143 for 8.
The MI team reached the top of the table after pulling off a 5 wicket win against the DC team.
