Rizvi stars as Delhi down Mumbai to top IPL table / Photo: Arun SANKAR - AFP
Rizvi stars as Delhi down Mumbai to top IPL table
In-form batter Sameer Rizvi hit an attacking 90 to steer Delhi Capitals to a second successive win this IPL season as they beat Mumbai Indians by six wickets on Saturday.
Chasing 163 for victory, Delhi rode on Rizvi's 51-ball knock laced with seven fours and seven sixes to achieve the target with 11 balls to spare at their home Arun Jaitley Stadium.
It was 22-year-old Rizvi's third successive half-century in the T20 tournament after his unbeaten 70 in the opener and a fifty to close last year's IPL.
Delhi, led by Axar Patel, took top spot in the 10-team IPL table to edge out Punjab Kings, who also have two wins in two matches.
Delhi slipped to 7-2 including opener KL Rahul out for one before Sri Lanka's Pathum Nissanka, who made 44, put on a 66-run stand with the swashbuckling Rizvi.
Nissanka departed in the 10th over but Rizvi, who came in as impact substitute in the chase, stood firm and put on another key stand of 78 with David Miller, who hit the winning four in his unbeaten 21.
Rizvi departed in the 17th over, denied a century by South Africa pace bowler Corbin Bosch, with the batter walking back to a thunderous applause from the home crowd.
Five-time winners Mumbai, who were without skipper Hardik Pandya who was ill, lost the toss and were put into bat, posting 162-6 with stand-in-skipper Suryakumar Yadav top-scoring with 51.
Delhi's medium-pace bowler Mukesh Kumar did the early damage with his twin strikes in one over including opener Ryan Rickelton for nine and Tilak Varma for a duck.
Rohit Sharma made 35 but it was India's T20 World Cup-winning captain Suryakumar and Naman Dhir (28) who enabled Mumbai to post a deent total.
M.Sabhan--al-Hayat
