Delhi Capitals pacer Mukesh Kumar attributes Impact Player Sameer’s explosive 51-ball 90 during their six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians to his hard work in the nets and his positive mindset
DC’s Sameer Rizvi during his 51-ball 90 against MI in New Delhi on Saturday. PICS/PTI
Impact Sub Sameer Rizvi carried on his match-winning form from Lucknow to his home base Delhi, scoring an explosive 51-ball 90 (7x4, 7x6) as Delhi Capitals easily beat Mumbai Indians by six wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
The 22-year-old Rizvi took MI pacer Corbin Bosch for 20 runs in the 11th over and then hit 13 runs, including two sixes, off leg-spinner Mayank Markande in the very next over. While MI’s batting brigade led by Rohit Sharma & Co found the wicket slow and difficult for hitting fluent strokes, Rizvi had no such problem and nor did he find the MI bowling difficult to score off. On course for a century, Rizvi eventually fell short, caught by Tilak Varma off Corbin Bosch at long-off.
Opener Pathum Nissanka was the next best scorer at 44, while KL Rahul (1) fell cheaply again to Deepak Chahar (1-20). David Miller (21 not out) and Tristan Stubbs (3 not out) took DC over the line.
MI players wear a dejected look after their loss to DC on Saturday
Speaking about his teammate Rizvi’s mindset at the post-match press conference, bowler Mukesh Kumar (2-26) said, “The key to Sameer’s batting performances is how he does well in the nets. If he does well there, then he doesn’t leave the opportunity to score big in matches. In practice, he’s always very positive. He always says that if he gets going early, he can play a long innings, and he’s doing exactly that.”
Meanwhile, MI pacer Deepak Chahar felt the pitch was slow: “The wicket was slow, we ended up a few runs short. To defend 160, we need to take wickets regularly. Had we got Rizvi out cheaply, things could have been different.” Speaking about Rizvi’s innings, Chahar said, “He plays attacking cricket and the one who is confident, always scores runs.”
Mukesh Kumar
Earlier, MI scored 162-6 in their allotted 20 overs. Put into bat by DC skipper Axar Patel, MI’s opening pair of Ryan Rickelton (9) and Rohit Sharma (35, 5x4, 1x6) had a modest partnership of 18 runs with Rickelton being the first to fall. MI suffered a double setback with Tilak Varma being caught and bowled by pacer Mukesh two balls later without scoring a run.
Stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav top-scored with 51 off 36 balls (3x4, 2x6) before falling leg-before to Lungi Ngidi. Suryakumar and Rohit resurrected MI’s innings with their 53-run partnership for the third wicket off 40 balls. MI made three changes, bringing in Deepak Chahar for unwell regular skipper Hardik Pandya, Corbin Bosch for Trent Boult and Mitchell Santner for Allah Ghazanfar.
I’ve worked a lot on my weakness against pace: Rizvi
Delhi Capitals’s Sameer Rizvi, who was named Player of the Match for his 51-ball 90 against Mumbai Indians, was delighted with his back-to-back match winning performances coming in as an Impact Player, but revealed that he worked very hard for these results.“I’ve worked a lot. I’ve worked on my weaknesses. I wasn’t as good against fast bowlers. I try to play according to the situation. I took time, got set and then played my shots. I tried to watch the ball as long as possible. If you score runs here, you get a lot of confidence,” Rizvi said.
Two
Sameer Rizvi’s 90 runs against MI is the second-highest score as an Impact Player in the IPL after Jos Buttler’s 107* vs KKR
3
No of consecutive half-centuries scored by Sameer Rizvi in the IPL
11
No of sixes struck by Sameer Rizvi in two innings this IPL — the most so far
160
No of runs scored by Sameer Rizvi in two IPL matches this year — the most so far
7
No of sixes for Rizvi on Saturday — the joint-most by a DC batter vs MI
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