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The third match of the Indian Premier League between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals lived up to its expectations and provided thorough entertainment.
MI won the toss and decided to chase on a flat Wankhede track. Delhi had a slow start as they lost two early wickets but a partnership between Shikhar Dhawan and Colin Ingram settled down things and gave Delhi a platform from where they can accelerate.
Enter Rishabh Pant, the Delhi lad scored just 1 run off his first five balls but then went berserk. He smashed every bowler of MI, not even sparing Jasprit Bumrah, and played a mind boggling innings of 78 runs off just 27 balls.
Thus Delhi set MI a target of 214 to chase.
Mumbai did not have a great start either as they lost Rohit Sharma early in the chase. Pressure kept mounting for them and they kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Krunal Pandya and Yuvraj Singh tried their best but the target was too big to chase for MI. They found themselves 37 runs short thus handling Delhi their first win of the tournament.
Here is what the captains said:
Rohit Sharma: First game is always challenging for most of the teams because there are lot of new players in the squad. We made a lot of mistakes today and that was the reason we lost the match.
We were in the game in the first 10 over while bowling but the way Rishabh batted we have to give the credit to him. We missed our lengths and failed to execute our plans but that can happen as there are lot of new guys in the squad and understanding takes a bit of time. But having said that we are all professional cricketers and we need to learn from our mistake as quickly as possible. We had 6 bowling options today.
We didn't play another spinner because I thought pitch will do something for the pacers. They had lot of left-handers in the squad so I was not convinced that leg spinner will bowl full four overs. We were very really clear about how we want to approach the game.
The combination might change in the next match that will depend on the opposition. I think the pitch was good. It was coming onto the bat nicely. We still ended up scoring 180. Nobody went onto to score a big score. Yuvi batted brilliantly. If someone would have made 70+ in the top four then things would have been different.
Shreyas Iyer: Both of them were good in their own way but a good start with the name Delhi Capitals, so would like to stick to it. I was really prepared to take down captaincy as I had been leading India A team as well as my domestic teams.
So, I was getting used to leading different personalities. We had been preparing and training well for the season. There isn't any secret but when he came here, the training ticked all the boxes. Our preparation was amazing and the team atmosphere is really great as well. Important for us to be consistent. (On Pant) He is a really destructive word, that's the only thing I can say about him. He has matured over the years.
Today, he played four dot balls early on and then just took them apart. That's where the maturity comes in. He's an amazing character to be with. Yesterday after the nets, he (Rabada) asked me 'Did you see me bowl?' and I told him that he wasn't bowling at his full tilt. He said 'I am reserving the energy for the game.
Rishabh Pant, Man of the Match: It's been a great journey, trying to learn every day in my cricketing career. Always a great feeling when you score runs and the team wins. I always bat according to the situation all the time. Today when I came in, I had to up the ante and so took my chances. It came off tonight. (On his unorthodox methods) Especially in T20, you have to do something different. Sometimes when bowlers cramp you for room, you got to make your own room. (Whether he is ok with batting at 5) Well, (pauses), glad to bat anywhere the team wants me to.
Here is how the twitter reacted:
1) Harsha Bhogle
2) Jatin Sapru
3) Aakash Chopra
4) Michael Vaughan
5) Nasser Hussain
6) Vikram Sathaye
7) Gaurav Kapur
8) Ramesh Srivats
9) Chetan Narula
10) Harsha Bhogle
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