Until Sunday, Romario Shepherd was one of several West Indies power-hitters plying their trade on the franchise circuit. Mumbai Indians was their third IPL franchise in three years. After bowling a blistering six balls in Mumbai on Sunday, the Guyanese all-rounder will not be forgotten – his heroics coming for a hugely popular franchise, for which Trinidad’s Kieron Pollard (now batting coach) provided late explosiveness. Were. Hit.
Shepherd Gave a cameo in 10 balls – 39*, 3×4, 4×6 – which made the difference between a par score of over 200 and 234, leading to Delhi Capitals‘Running and chasing is an almost impossible task. DC eventually fell behind by 29 runs to give the much-talked-about MI their first win.
The defeat pushed DC to the bottom of the points table with one win from five matches, having the worst net run-rate among the three teams with two points each – leaving MI eighth and RCB ninth.
Creating havoc with his last over at the Wankhede Stadium, Shepherd smashed 32 runs (4 sixes and 2 fours) in the 20th over off pacer Anrich Nortje and provided MI’s total with some of the finishing kick they needed in the middle overs. There was a dire need after the slow pace of. ,
MI’s total was driven by a brilliant start and death overs attack provided by Rohit Sharma (49 – 27b, 6×4,3×6). On a true pitch, Rohit and Ishan Kishan (42 – 23b, 4×4, 6×2) gave MI a great start by scoring 75 runs in the powerplay.
Axar Patel sent back the aggressive Rohit with a smart change in pace and length in the seventh over. After three consecutive dot balls, Axar hit a shot at 102.9 kmph, which evaded Rohit’s cut attempt and took the off-stump. In the final over of his spell, Akshar took a sharp reflex catch to stop Kishan’s advance.
Hardik Pandya landed at number four after Suryakumar Yadav, who returned due to injury, was out on zero. They tried to provide momentum in the middle overs, but could not do so after losing both their left-handed batsmen.
Axar’s unchanged spell (4-0-35-2) pushed MI back, but with Kuldeep Yadav injured, DC had no other spinner of quality, looking to exploit dangerman Tim David’s weakness. Leave aside the wrist spinner. DC’s fast bowlers tried bowling short in the leg-side field against the Australian team as well as Hardik, but had limited success on the actual pitch.
David continued to hit two fours in every death over as DC’s pace attack looked more dull. After Hardik’s wicket fell in the 18th over, Shepherd along with David (45* – 21b, 2×4, 4×6) scored 19 runs in the 19th over of Ishant Sharma. He then adapted to everything Nortje tried – attempting the cutter, the length ball or the yorker.
MI scored 96 runs in the death overs – jointly second in IPL history. “I kept my mind clear and tried to hit every ball,” he said. The runs came against a tough bowler, so it was a great feeling,” Shepherd said.
In reply, DC’s batting powerplay was nowhere close to being that explosive, scoring 46 runs. They lost David Warner, who lost to Shepherd. This was to be his day.
Prithvi Shaw’s explosive innings kept DC in the game. He played a mature innings, bowling out the only powerplay over of Jasprit Bumrah and showed measured aggression against the other MI pacers. He attacked Piyush Chawla’s leg-spin, using his knees and his feet to loft him over mid-wicket – scoring 16 runs in the eighth over.
Bumrah again did wonders
But DC needed many such overs. With DC’s score at 107/1 after 11 overs, captain Hardik turned to Bumrah, who produced a sharp yorker to end Shaw’s stay (66 – 40b, 8×4, 3×6).
As Tristan Stubbs and young Abhishek Porel started hitting some hits, Hardik called on Bumrah in the 15th over. Porel (41-31b) was out to long-on on a low full toss.
With 91 runs needed in the death overs, MI still had to be on their toes as Stubbs batted with combativeness. He was eventually dismissed after a blistering innings of 71* (25b, 3×4, 7×6), with Gerald Coetzee taking three wickets in the final over. In the match in which 439 runs were scored, Bumrah’s figures were 4-0-22-2.
“Coming into the game, it was kind of rough for us with three losses in three games. We are a big team and there are big expectations from us. We didn’t want to go down four. “It was great for me to get the run at the end and get us over the line,” Shepherd said.
Marsh’s IPL under doubt!
DC all-rounder and Australian T20 captain Mitch Marsh has suffered a hamstring injury and may be out of the IPL if his scan reports are not good. “Some of our players are injured and there are worrying signs,” DC assistant coach Praveen Amre said. “He has gone for scans and the physio will give us the report in a week. Then we will know what the true situation is. Whether he can (play the rest of the season) or not depends on the report.
Amre said fast bowler Mukesh Kumar could return for the next match, while left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav could play one or two more games before coming back from his back injury.
