IPL 2023: Contrasting fifties from Axar, Warner take Delhi to 172 against Mumbai

New Delhi: Contrasting half-centuries from Axar Patel and captain David Warner carried Delhi Capitals to 172 in 19.4 overs against Mumbai Indians in match 16 of IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday.

Delhi were in trouble at 98/5 in 12.3 overs, and Axar walked in to smack 54 off 25 balls, hitting four fours and five effortless sixes in what was his first IPL fifty. Warner began well but struggled to accelerate and played an anchor role to make an unconvincing 51 off 47 balls.

Mumbai’s bowling struggled in power-play, but veteran leg-spinner Piyush Chawla got turn from a dry pitch to pick 3/22, while left-arm pacer Jason Behrendorff finished with 3/23 as Delhi’s last five wickets fell for just seven runs, with two balls left unused.

Pushed into batting first, Delhi were off to a decent start by racing to 29/0 in the first three overs. Shaw got off the mark by presenting the full face of the bat to punch-drive down the ground off Behrendorff. He would time two more flowy drives off Arshad Khan and Hrithik Shokeen, but Shaw would fall to the latter after sweeping straight to square leg.

Warner initially nailed his pulls and slogs while being severe on anything having width from the bowlers. From the other end, Manish Pandey was great in his on-drives while using his feet well against spinners, and had some luck in edges going for boundaries.

Post the first time-out, Pandey danced down the pitch to loft off Chawla, but holed out to long-off in the ninth over. In the next over, Yash Dhull’s IPL debut lasted four balls as his flick off the hips off a slower ball from Riley Meredith was caught by running deep mid-wicket.

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More trouble followed Delhi as Chawla’s googly trapped Rovman Powell plumb lbw in the 11th over. After paddle-sweeping off Green in the 12th over, Warner got a life as Chawla couldn’t hold on to his catch at mid-off and couldn’t effect a run-out despite a mix-up between him and Lalit Yadav.

Chawla made up for the shelled chance by luring Lalit through flight and uprooting his leg-stump with a slower googly. Warner then nailed a slog-sweep off Chawla for four, before bringing up his half-century in 43 balls.

From the other end, Axar showed his fine touch with the bat by carting Shokeen for back-to-back inside-out sixes, before striking Green through cover and down the ground for a brace of fours.

Axar then smacked consecutive sixes over long-on off Behrendorff, second of which Suryakumar Yadav dropped and was hit on the face, walking off the field immediately. He took on Meredith by hooking through short fine leg for four, followed by smacking a six straight down the ground on a no-ball to get his fifty in 22 balls.

But Mumbai bounced back in the 19th over as Behrendorff had Axar holing out to deep square leg, Warner giving a top-edge to short third man and Abishek Porel miscuing to mid-off, apart from Kuldeep Yadav being run-out by mid-on. Meredith castled Anrich Nortje in the final over to make it the first time a side batting first has been bowled out.

Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 172 in 19.4 overs (Axar Patel 54, David Warner 51; Piyush Chawla 3/22, Jason Behrendorff 3/23) against Mumbai Indians

(IANS)