Mumbai Indians’ Suryakumar Yadav plays a shot during the IPL match between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Capitals at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, May 21, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP
Suryakumar Yadav’s resolute 73 not out and late fireworks from Naman Dhir lifted Mumbai Indians to 180/5 on a sluggish surface exploited well by Delhi Capitals spinners Kuldeep Yadav (1/25) and Vipraj Nigam (0/25) in their IPL clash here on Wednesday.
On an uncharacteristic Wankhede Stadium pitch which had plenty of grip and turn for spinners and slow cutters doing the job for fast bowlers, Suryakumar dug in to produce a quality knock for the five-time IPL winners.
Suryakumar struck seven fours and four sixes to make 73 not out off 43 balls while forging two crucial stands, which revived a faltering innings.
First, amid a challenging phase of play with DC’s spinners dominating the proceedings, Suryakumar put on 55 runs for the fourth wicket with Tilak Varma and towards the end, found a perfect foil in Dhir (24 off 8 balls, 2x4s, 2x6s) to add another 57 runs from a mere 21 balls.
The tables turned drastically in the last two overs when the Indian T20 skipper Suryakumar and Dhir hit a grand total of five sixes and four boundaries to add 48 runs, shifting the momentum completely in MI’s favour.
However, at one stage it all looked far too difficult for the Mumbai batters who struggled right from the end of the powerplay until the 18th over began.
Rohit Sharma (5) fell to a left-arm pacer for the fourth time this season edging one behind off Mustafizur Rahman ((1/30).
Suryakumar got a lifeline batting on six when a leading edge fell to the left of a diving Mukesh Kumar at short leg off Kuldeep in the seventh over.
But on the next delivery, Ryan Rickelton (25) swept one straight to Madhav Tiwari at deep square leg with which Kuldeep also completed his 100 wickets in IPL.
It was a laborious innings from Tilak who struggled against Kuldeep and failed to cut lose when his side needed him to.
Tilak evidently struggled the most against Kuldeep, failing to even rotate the strike and managing seven runs off 11 balls form the Chinaman bowler.
Tilak’s dismissal — a mistimed hit to long-on off Mukesh (2/48) — soon followed Hardik Pandya’s (3), who was done in by a slow leg-cutter from Dushmantha Chameera (1/54), only to get an outside edge which went straight to Mukesh positioned at backward point.
Like Tilak, Suryakumar too had his struggles against the Delhi spinners who found adequate turn to keep the free-flowing batter in check but he capitalised towards the end to produce arguably his finest knock of the season.
Published – May 21, 2025 09:57 pm IST