After creating enough tension among the playoff-spot contenders with a late comeback in the league, Mumbai Indians have finally exited from the race with a defeat against the already-eliminated Delhi Daredevils in the penultimate encounter of the league round.

DD had nothing to lose when they came into the match, but their much-hyped “balanced” had a point to prove as the business end of the tournament and the team did just that by defeating Chennai Super Kings and the Mumbai-based franchise in back-to-back matches.

The biggest positive in Delhi’s campaign was the emergence of Rishabh Pant, who has clubbed five half-centuries and a hundred throughout the whole campaign and is currently the leading run-scorer in the tournament.

In his last match against Mumbai, Pant highest-scoring wicketkeeper in a single season of IPL. The 20-year-old has accumulated 685 runs, 25 more than Robin Uthappa’s 660 runs, a record that was set back in 2014.

Batting first, Pant’s 64-run innings powered DD to register a total of 174 for 4. While the top-order failed to make an impact in their innings, Pant stitched a 64-run partnership with Vijay Shankar to keep the team alive in the contest.

Pant was dismissed by Krunal Pandya, but Shankar remained unbeaten on 45. Jasprit Bumarah and Mayank Markande also scalped a wicket apiece.

In reply, MI’s revived avatar knelt down before the fired up DD. Except for a 48-run knock by Evin Lewis in the start, MI didn’t see any remarkable display from their batters until Hardik Pandya and Ben Cutting tried to salvage the three-time champions’ pride.

Hardik made 27 off 17 and Cutting scored 37 from 20 deliveries, but that couldn’t save MI from falling 11 runs short in the end.

Amit Mishrah and Sandeep Lamichhane decked theopponents’ top and middle-order by bagging 3 wickets each. Then after a strike by Trent Boult, Harshal Patel wiped the tail by taking the remaining wickets. The bowlers teamed up greatly to bundle the visitors out in 19.3 overs.

With six wins from 14 games, MI are two points short of fourth-placed Rajasthan Royals and are out of the fray. Delhi have registered their fifth victory in 14 matches and have won the wooden spoon for a record fourth time in the history of the IPL.

 

Scores: