Mumbai beats Delhi by 6 wickets for first win in IPL

Cameron Green and Tim David survived a barrage of Anrich Nortje’s pacey yorkers in the last over and earned the Mumbai Indians a six-wicket win over the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Nortje had only five runs in hand in the final over and leaked only three off the first five balls. Green, who made unbeaten 17, and David (13 not out) scampered for two runs off the last ball and took Mumbai to 173-4 for its first win in the tournament.

Delhi batters struggled for the fourth straight game and lost wickets in clusters before Axar Patel blazed 54 off 25 balls and captain David Warner (51) hit his third half-century in four games as the home team got bowled out for 172 in 19.4 overs.

“Obviously, winning the game is the most important thing and it’s a great feeling to cross the line,” Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma said. “To get the result feels really good and we’re going to cherish this.”

Sharma seemed to have sealed the game with his sublime 65 off 45 balls and shared two meaningful half-century stands up front.

Sharma contributed 71 with Ishan Kishan (31) for the first-wicket stand and added 68 with Tilak Varma, who hit four sixes and a boundary in his 41 off 29 balls.

But fast bowler Mukesh Kumar’s twin strikes off successive balls in the 16th over shook Mumbai’s chase with Varma and Suryakumar Yadav both getting caught on the edge of the boundary.

Wicketkeeper Abishek Porel then pulled off a sensational right-handed catch to dismiss Sharma in the following over off Mustafizur Rahman as Mumbai lost three wickets in space of four runs.

But both Green and impact player David kept their nerves against pace of Nortje in the final over and kept Delhi rooted at the bottom of table.

Earlier, Prithvi Shaw (15) continued his struggle in the powerplay as he swept spinner Hrithik Shokeen straight to backward square leg.

Leg-spinner Piyush Chawla then picked up 3-22 and Jason Behrendorff (3-23) got the vital wickets of Patel and Warner in his return spell and Delhi got bowled out in the final over.

Patel smashed five sixes and four boundaries before getting caught in the deep of Behrendorff full delivery and Warner top-edged a slower leg-cutter to short third man.

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