IPL 2023: Rohit's 65 leads the way for Mumbai to earn first two points in last-ball thriller

NIHARIKA RAINA

New Delhi, April 11 (IANS) Mumbai Indians skipper Rohit Sharma led the way with a 45-ball 65, his first half-century in the IPL after 25 innings, as the five-time champions beat Delhi Capitals by six wickets on the last ball in a thrilling match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

The victory also means that Mumbai have got their first points on the board in the competition while Delhi face their fourth consecutive loss of the tournament. Compared to Delhi's 29/0, Mumbai had a blazing start by reaching 42/0 in three overs. Rohit was at his vintage best, timing the ball well and picking the lengths very quickly in hitting two fours and a six in a 14-run opening over.

On the other hand, Ishan Kishan hit the ground running by smacking three boundaries through the off-side against Mustafizur Rahman. Anrich Nortje was smacked for two fours and a six, which Rohit elegantly whipped over wide long-on.

Rohit and Ishan took two boundaries each off Axar Patel and Lalit Yadav as Mumbai finished power-play with 68 for no loss, with the Mumbai captain being innovative in his reverse-sweep off the left-arm spinner.

The opening partnership came to an end when Ishan was run-out at the non-striker's end in the eighth over. Rohit produced the shot of the match by pulling Anrich Nortje high over deep mid-wicket for six in the ninth over, before getting his fifty in 29 balls.

Tilak Varma got some applause from Rohit when he danced down the pitch to slam a fabulous lofted drive over long-off for six off Kuldeep Yadav. Rohit then ended the 12th over by sweeping Kuldeep hard through deep backward square leg for four.

Varma sliced Mukesh Kumar over backward point for four, followed by eye-catchy sixes over deep mid-wicket and extra cover, giving Mumbai an ideal start in the 16th over. But Mukesh bounced back by having Varma slogging straight to deep mid-wicket and Suryakumar Yadav hitting a short ball straight to fine leg for a golden duck.

Delhi produced a big twist came in the 17th over when Rohit sliced off Mustafizur and Abhishek Porel dived to his right to take a brilliant one-handed catch. With 18 needed off nine balls, Cameron Green and Tim David slogged Mustafizur for a six each over deep mid-wicket and long-on, as 15 runs came off the 19th over.

David was dropped by Mukesh in the final over and after Delhi reversed an on-field wide call, two runs were needed off the final ball. David made a desperate dive for the second run and despite Porel taking off the bails, Mumbai were able to break their winless run in IPL 2023.

Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172 in 19.4 overs (Axar Patel 54, David Warner 51; Piyush Chawla 3/22, Jason Behrendorff 3/23) lost to Mumbai Indians 173/4 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 65, Tilak Varma 41; Mukesh Kumar 2/30, Mustafizur Rahman 1/38) by six wickets