New Delhi: Twenty20 cricket is about momentum. Just sometimes, though, it can also be about moments. Two of these, one of madness, and the other, of magic, encapsulated Delhi Daredevils’ 10-run win over the Mumbai Indians at the Kotla here on Saturday. The man involved in both was the inspirational Zaheer Khan.
Delhi did reasonably well with the bat in posting 164/4 after Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma followed convention in deciding to chase. Half-centuries from Sanju Samson and Jean Paul Duminy helped set the target before a chance call in the Mumbai innings almost triggered Delhi’s doom.
Zaheer had bowled an excellent first over, shaping the ball away from Rohit outside off-stump three times, the batsman following the line every time, There were two boundaries as well, but the bowler had made his point.
Parthiv Patel’s runout seemed the inevitable follow-up in the next over for the hosts, but instead of bowling the third over, Zaheer walked off, handing the ball to million-dollar man Pawan Negi. Nineteen runs came off that weak third over and from that point, the
Mumbai Indians were well on their way. Rohit (65, 48b, 7x4, 1x6) lost Ambati Rayudu (25, 23b) but with the explosive Krunal Pandya (36, 17b, 4x4, 2x6) swinging his bat with merry abandon, the chase seemed under control. Till the Zaheer moment of magic. Following through while bowling to Rohit in his second spell, Zaheer ran Pandya out and, Delhi sensed a chance.
