New Delhi, April 27: Delhi Capitals set a 258 target for Mumbai Indians in the 43rd match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday, here.
For the home side DC, their overseas opener Jake Fraser-McGurk continued his good showing by slamming a sensational 84 while Tristan Stubbs smashed an unbeaten 48 as DC scored 257/4 in 20 overs.
Fraser-McGurk tore into the MI bowling attack by hitting eleven fours and six sixes at a strike rate of 311.11. Supporting him was Stubbs hitting six fours and two sixes in his late flurry to give DC a good chance to get another win at their original home ground.
Abishek Porel, Shai Hope and captain Rishabh Pant chipped in with sizeable contributions in another run-fest at the venue as DC hit 17 maximums in what is also their highest-ever score in the IPL. For MI, barring Jasprit Bumrah (1-35) and Mohammad Nabi (1-20), the rest of the bowlers were taken to the cleaners by DC’s solid batters.
Fraser-McGurk began by whipping Luke Wood off his wrists to take a four in the gap between mid-wicket and mid-on. With his still frame and beautiful wristwork, Fraser-McGurk smashed two more fours and a six to take 19 runs off the opening over.
He welcomed Bumrah by dispatching his slower ball over long-on for six and drilled a drive on the free-hit ball for four. Fraser-McGurk ended the over by swiping Bumrah for a four to take 18 runs off the second over.
He would smack Nuwan Thushara for three fours, before getting his fifty in 15 balls with a slog-sweep off Piyush Chawla over deep mid-wicket. After hitting Chawla for another four, Fraser-McGurk hit Hardik Pandya for two fours and as many sixes, before Bumrah conceded only three runs in the last over of Power-play as DC signed off from the phase at 92/0.
Hardik was carted for runs again as Fraser-McGurk and Porel struck four and two sixes collectively in the seventh over to bring up DC’s hundred. Fraser-McGurk’s fun came to an end when he was cramped for room on a heave against Chawla and gave a simple catch to mid-wicket, falling for 27-ball 84.
After Porel was stumped off Nabi in the tenth over, MI felt they would become successful in applying brakes on DC’s innings. But Shai Hope had other ideas, smacking five delightful sixes before flicking straight to deep mid-wicket off Luke Wood to fall for a 17-ball 41.
Pant continued DC’s attacking tempo by heaving and whipping Thushara for four and six respectively, before pulling Chawla for a boundary and flicking Bumrah off his wrists for six, before pulling a slower bouncer to deep backward square leg, making it the seventh time he fell to Bumrah in T20s.
From the other end, after driving a Thushara full-toss for four, Stubbs greeted Luke Wood with consecutive scoops for boundaries. He then brought out the reverse scoop on successive occasions to pick a six and four respectively.
Stubbs would end the 18th over by pulling back-to-back for boundaries off slower balls as 26 runs came off it. He and Axar Patel took a pulled six each off Thushara in the final over to take DC past 250.
It is ye t another 250 surplus score in IPL 2024, turning out to be batters dominated tournament yet again. (With IANS support)
