(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Promising all-rounder Krunal Pandya smashed 86 off just 37 balls and bagged two wickets to steer Mumbai Indians to a comprehensive 80-run win over Delhi Daredevils to keep Mumbai's hopes alive of a playoff spot in the Indian Premier League.
With this win Mumbai have moved to third spot, while Delhi remain in fifth in the standings. Put in to bat, openers Rohit Sharma (31) and Martin Guptill (48) helped the defending champions get off to a decent start scoring 45 runs without losing any wicket after the completion of powerplay. But the seventh over of the innings saw a twist in the tale - leg-spinner Amit Mishra brought about the first breakthrough dismissing Mumbai skipper Rohit when Mumbai were 46 for 1 in 6.3 overs. Hard-hitting left-hander Krunal who was promoted up the order at No.3 to keep the run flow going, did not disappoint his team. He played his natural game, striking a couple of boundaries and sixes to help the team keep a healthy run-rate. During his maiden IPL half century, the left-handed batsman struck seven boundaries and six sixes. He was well supported at the other end by experienced Kiwi batsman Guptill as the duo played sensibly to help their team cross the 80-run mark after 10 overs. Guptill-Krunal duo smashed 23 runs in the 13th over bowled by leg-spinner Imran Tahir to take the team over 100-run mark in style. Next up, courtesy of couple of big blows, Krunal brought up his maiden IPL half century in just 22 balls. The impressive 96-run partnership for the second wicket came to an end in the 15th over when Guptill looking to strike one over long on was caught by Karun Nair off the bowling off Zaheer Khan. The hosts were 144 for 2 then. Despite wickets at the other end, Krunal smashed it to all parts of the ground, but eventually in the 18th over Chris Morris finally got rid of the 25-year-old to put a check on the run flow. In the dying overs the innings, Jos Buttler (18 n.o) and Ambati Rayudu (13 n.o) played useful cameos to take the team past 200. Morris (2-34) was the pick of the bowlers for Delhi as the spinning trio of Shahbaz Nadeem (2 for 42), Amit Mishra (1 for 42) and Tahir (0 for 59) proved expensive.