When 'warrior' Rohit led from front to set up maiden win for MI in IPL 2023

Rohit Sharma was at his vintage best en route to his first IPL halfcentury in 25 innings before Mumbai Indians overcame some tense moments to pull off a lastball win over Delhi Capitals here on MondayDavid Warner laboured to 51 off 47 balls before Axar Patel flaunted his much improved batting skills again with an impactful 54 off 25 balls to push Delhi Capitals to a competitive 172 after Mumbai Indians put the hosts in to batWith the pitch on the drier side compared to the first game here and finger spinners getting plenty of assistance from it Mumbai Indians had a tricky task at hand but with his classy 65 off 45 balls Rohit helped his side record their first win of the seasonWith Cameron Green 17 not out off 8 and Tim David 13 not out off 11 in the middle Mumbai needed five runs off the last over but Anrich Nortje bowled brilliantly to take the game down to the very last ball David got the required two off the final ball for a much needed victoryPromoted to number three the inform Tilak Varma came up with a crucial 41 off 29 balls and forged a 68run stand with skipper RohitAlso Read DC vs MI highlights Mumbai Indians clinch maiden win beat Delhi by 6 wicketsIt was a much needed win for Mumbai after backtoback defeats while the season got worse for Delhi who suffered their fourth loss in as many gamesWhen Rohit charged down the track to pacer Mukesh Kumar in the first over of the innings to pull him for a six over midwicket one could see a special knock comingThere is no better puller in the game than Rohit and that was on full display at the Feroz Shah Kotla His second six was even better as he pulled Anrich Nortje off the front foot over wide longon Rohits biggest six came off a pull shot too as he smashed a short ball from Nortje for a massive hit over deep square legDelhi were able to stem the flow of runs in the middle overs via spinners Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel before Varma produced timely boundaries to keep Mumbai ahead in the gameNeeding 30 off the final five overs with nine wickets in hand Mumbai were on course for a comfortable win before Mukesh dismissed Varma and Suryakumar Yadav 0 off successive ballsThe nerves increased in the Mumbai dressing room when Rohit fell to a moment of brilliance from young keeper Abhishel Porel who dived to his right to take a sensational one handed catch off Mustafizur RahmanHowever the towering Australian duo David and Green took their team over the lineEarlier veteran Piyush Chawla who was commentating in the IPL last season after going unsold showed he has still got his sublime skills intact with a threewicket haul for Mumbai IndiansPrithvi Shaw who struggled in the first three games hit some high quality boundaries in his 10ball 15 before falling to a sweep shot off spinner Hrithik ShokeenNumber three Manish Pandey 26 off 18 used his feet brilliantly against the spinners but that also led to his downfallYash Dhull who made his IPL debut after warming the bench for the whole of last season could last only four ballsWhen Chawla trapped Rovman Powell with a googly in the 11th over Delhi were staring at a below par total at 86 for fourHowever Axar joined a struggling Warner in the middle and singlehandedly changed the momentum of Delhis inningsArguably the most improved batter of the Indian team over the last 12 months Axar made his intentions clear with backtoback inside out sixes off ShokeenTwo overs later it was the turn of leftarm pacer Jason Behrendorff to be at the receiving end of Axars onslaught After dispatching him for a six over longon Axar targeted the same area again and got lucky as Suyakumar Yadav missed the catch completely and got hit above his eye with the ball going all the waySurya was expectedly taken off the field after that nasty hitAxars fifth and last six was the best of the lot as he smashed Meredith over the latters head to bring up his halfcenturyMumbai put the brakes on the scoring rate by picking four wickets in the 19th over bowled by Behrendorff who ended with figures of three for 23 in four oversThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever