Shreyas Iyer hails Delhi Daredevils’ comeback vs Mumbai Indians in IPL 2018

Yet another game went down to the last over and yet again, Mumbai Indians (MI) were at the receiving end of the pulsating action. They had lost the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 season-opener to Chennai Super Kings owing to a mini-blitz from Dwayne Bravo and had seen Deepak Hooda help Sunrisers Hyderabad snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. On Saturday, however, MI had no one but to blame themselves.

Being sent in to bat first against Delhi Daredevils, here at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai Indians were off to a flying start with openers Suryakumar Yadav (53) and Evin Lewis (48) taking the Delhi Daredevils attack to the ropes. They put up 84 at the end of the powerplay, stitched a 102-run stand in just 54 balls and had set the perfect launchpad for any team to plunder the opposition.

Instead, Mumbai Indians managed to put up only 194 on the board despite a quickfire 23-ball 44 from the young Ishan Kishan. The slide also included a shambolic show towards the tail-end of the innings with the defending champions scoring only 27 runs off the last four overs while going on to lose three wickets. Although 194 is not a below-par total, it always seemed a tad short.

And at the end of the game, players from both the camps admitted that those 20-odd runs made all the difference. “Obviously we were expecting around 220 but the bowlers restricted them well in the middle and we really bowled well in patches. The comeback was amazing by the bowlers and hopefully we keep continuing doing the same things,” said local lad Shreyas Iyer who scored a modest 20-ball 27 on the night but more importantly held fort at one end as Jason Roy (91*) steered the visitors to victory.

READ | Jason Roy guides Delhi Daredevils home in last-ball IPL 2018 thriller vs Mumbai Indians

“We were 10-15 runs short but still 180+ score is a good score on any ground. It was defendable when we started fielding. We wanted momentum and take early wickets but we couldn’t get back. They batted really well and did not give us a chance in first 10-12 overs,” Suryakumar told reporters.

Like Iyer, who usually bats at No 3 but came in lower down the order today, Suryakumar too had a shift in his batting position. With MI’s opening partnerships being 7 and 11 in the first two games, they gambled sending Yadav to open the innings with Lewis and he adapted well to the situation.

On being asked how challenging the transition was given that his role was to finish off games for this former side Kolkata Knight Riders, Yadav stated: “I don’t mind opening the innings because I have played most of my cricket here and I know how the new ball behaves. So, I said ‘Let’s take that challenge and responsibility and go ahead.”

Despite the result, MI would be pleased to at least have found a solution for their opening pair. With Kishan also in good nick, there’s a proper momentum at the top of the order. However, along with that, the unit also needs to handle their nerves well given that they’ve lost all the three matches after dragging it to a nail-biting finish.

Iyer, was however, delighted with his side’s first win this season. “Obviously (we’re) feeling phenomenal at the moment. We were waiting for this win, and especially against Mumbai Indians, it’s a great comeback from the team. Every one of us wanted to win this game,” he added.