IPL 2018, DD vs MI: 5 Reasons why Mumbai lost against Delhi

The 55th match of the IPL saw Rohit Sharma’s MI and Shreyas Iyer’s DD take on each other. It was a must win the game for Mumbai and they were the favourites considering their experience in such situations. DD sprung a surprise by sending Maxwell to open the batting but the move did not quite work out as he walked back after an uncharacteristic knock. But Pant once again continued his dream season with another superb inning and some late hits from Vijay Shankar took DD to 174.

Chasing 175, Mumbai got off to a fiery start by accumulating 50 runs in first 5 overs. But once the wrist spinners came in their innings went down the hill as they lost wickets regularly. Ben Cutting played an absolute blinder and almost took Mumbai over the line but it wasn’t quite enough and Mumbai lost by 11 runs.

Here are the 5 reasons for Mumbai’s loss

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#1 Weakness against wrist spin

For the second match in a row, the batsmen’s weakness against wrist spin played a vital part in their team’s defeat. In this IPL almost everyone has failed to pick the wrong’un and the googly.

In this match, the trend continued as the batsman never got to the pitch of the ball while playing the leg-spinners and it proved to be costly. Also, batsmen, these days want to hit themselves out of the situation rather than rotating the strike but this method won’t work against experienced campaigners like Mishra.

#2 Messing up the batting order

One major reason for Mumbai’s mediocre season this year has been the woeful form of Rohit Sharma. Barring that one good inning against RCB, he hasn’t looked anywhere at his best and due to this, there was confusion as to who should bat at what position.

This match Pollard came in at no 4 but struggled against Mishra and eventually lost his wicket. In such a situation Rohit should have played sensibly but he yet again played a loose shot when Mumbai was in command and it cost Mumbai the match.

#3 Rishabh Pant’s knock

DD got off to a quick start but Mumbai bounced back with 2 wickets. But yet again Rishabh Pant came to the crease and took it upon himself to take his team to a decent total.

He looked in total command throughout the innings and this inning was a show of his versatility as a batsman. He looked equally comfortable against both pace and spin and played a measured knock which proved to be a match-winning one for the Delhi.

#4 No support for Ben Cutting

At one point, the game looked done and dusted with Mumbai 7 down and needing 53 runs from 5 overs. But Ben Cutting remained calm and composed. The 18th over bowled by Plunkett proved to be very costly as he scored 16 runs off his first three balls.

But he lacked support from the other end as Markande could not even get bat on the ball and struggled to give the strike back to Cutting. In spite of all this, Cutting almost took Mumbai home singlehandedly but fell just short of a knock that could have been remembered for ages.

#5 Dream over for Lamichhane

The 17-year-old kid from Nepal caused quite a stir when he was picked up by DD but did not get a chance to play until DD was knocked out.

But he made a huge impact on today’s game and bowled an over which he will remember for a long time. In the first ball of his second over he got the big fish Pollard with some help from Maxwell who pulled off an absolute stunner with so much ease.

In his 4th ball, he got Krunal Pandya out by deceiving him with flight. This lead took all the momentum out of Mumbai’s chase and they succumbed to an 11 run defeat.