A destructive knock by Tim David powered Mumbai Indians to a thrilling 5-wicket win over Rishabh Pant-led Delhi Capitals at the Wankhede Stadium, on Saturday. Though the game was a dead rubber for the five-time IPL champs, as they were already knocked out of the playoffs race but Mumbai’s thrilling win helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to seal a place in the playoffs as Delhi Capitals were knocked out of the race.
Tim David walked out to bat with all-guns-blazing when things were not going in MI’s direction, and he played a destructive knock of 34 runs off 11 balls to shift the momentum in MI’s favor.
Chasing a target of 160-runs, MI was off to a sluggish start as they lost their captain Rohit Sharma on just 2. Dewald Brevis joined hands with Ishan Kishan to revive the innings for MI as they registered their lowest powerplay score this season – 27/1.
Ishan Kishan showed a glimpse of his talent as he played a 48-run knock but he was dismissed by Kuldeep Yadav, without letting him convert the knock into a big score. Baby AB smashed a couple of shots but he also failed to capitalize on his knock and was dismissed on 37 runs off 33 balls.
When the game looked slipping away from MI’s hands, Tilak Varma and Tim David joined hands and once again came to the rescue of Mumbai as they guided the MI squad to a sensational win. Tim David’s knock was laced with 4 sixes and 1 four.
Meanwhile, after the game, speaking at the post-match conference, Tim David revealed he received a message from RCB players Faf du Plessis featuring Virat Kohli and Glenn Maxwell. Yes, you read that right. After MI’s win, David was asked about being a former RCB player, responding to which, he revealed:
“I got a message from Faf this morning. It was a picture of him, Maxi and Virat all in MI kit. Maybe I’ll have to post to Instagram later. “
David also expressed his emotions on taking his team to the victory lines. Talking about the performance of his team, he said:
“It’s nice to finish with a win. It’s a good feeling. We got close the other night. We can’t ask for much more than to finish with a win. Ishan as he walked off, he said to me, ‘The wicket’s gotten flatter.’ So it was holding a little bit with the slower balls but you just have to hold your shape, back your game, keep it simple. I think there was a couple of baby sixes today so I got away with a couple.”
He added: “I think it’s just about repetition and trying to hold your shape. Maybe early on in the season, I might have been leaning back on the ball and hitting it in the air so I worked really hard on trying to stay over the ball. It’s been tough but our last six games, we played some really good cricket as a team. We won four games which is really promising for our group. We got a bit of confidence from that so that’s really important for us moving forward.”
