Delhi Capitals have been unable to defeat the Mumbai Indians in every single one of their clashes in IPL 2020 – twice in the league stage and then in Qualifier 1. Batting first or fielding, it has not mattered with Delhi having been comprehensively beaten by Mumbai each time.
The Indian Premier League Season 13 title clash took place in Dubai on Tuesday night and Delhi Capitals knew they would have to come up with something special if they were to get the better of the mighty Mumbai Indians and win their first ever IPL title.
Electing to bat first, DC had the worst possible start – Marcus Stoinis out the very first ball of the match courtesy Trent Boult.
Boult has been a hero for Mumbai on numerous occasions this season and the final was no different as he struck yet again in the third over to get rid of Ajinkya Rahane – Delhi 16/2 in 2.4 overs.
Boult has taken 16 wickets in the powerplay this season – joint highest with Mitchell Johnson who also achieved the feat for Mumbai in 2013.
Shikhar Dhawan, who has notched up two centuries this IPL, failed to produce the same magic on the night of the final, out in the very next over for 15. Delhi 22/3 in 3.3 overs.
It was left to skipper Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant to rebuild the innings. After playing themselves in for a little while both batsmen began to open up.
After 10 overs, Delhi had reached 75 without losing another wicket.
Pant brought up his lone half century of IPL 2020 but fell soon after to Nathan Coulter-Nile.
Delhi had gone at a decent rate all this while and should have managed a good total.
However, tight bowling by Mumbai meant that DC took just 48 runs off the last 6 overs with Shimron Hetmyer and Axar Patel both failing to get past 10 runs and Iyer slowing down considerably.
The Delhi skipper remained unbeaten on 65 off 50 balls as DC put up a below par total of 156/7 in 20 overs.
Mumbai Indians came out all guns blazing with the in-form Quinton de Kock hitting 4, 6 and 4 in Kagiso Rabada’s first over.
Rohit Sharma too kept the momentum up as Mumbai racked up the runs.
Stoinis managed to get de Kock out with his very first ball but then faced some punishment at the hands of Suryakumar Yadav who launched him for a four and a six.
At the end of five overs, Mumbai were 58/1.
Rohit Sharma ended up running Suryakumar out for 19 but the Mumbai skipper made up for that with a solid half-century.
Ably assisted by Ishan Kishan, Rohit kept the score inching towards the IPL trophy.
By the time Anrich Nortje managed to get Rohit (68 off 51 balls) out in the 17th over, Mumbai needed just 20 runs off 22 balls.
Mumbai lost Kieron Pollard and Hardik Pandya along the way but reached their target and their fifth IPL championship title with 8 balls to spare.
Ishan Kishan remained not out on 33 off 19 balls. Trent Boult was named Man of the Match.