Romario Shepherd played one of the best brutal knocks, which will be remembered for years, guiding Mumbai Indians (MI) to overpower Delhi Capitals (DC) by 29 runs at the Wankhede Stadium. With a comfortable win, MI who suffered three straight losses registered their first win of the IPL 2024 season. Chasing a huge 235, Prithvi Shaw batted well with a 40-ball 66 knock at the top while other batters stumbled. Tristan Stubbs showed stubborn resilience till the end, exhibiting a blistering knock of unbeaten 25-ball 71.

Put into bat first, Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan gave a fiery start to MI. Both rained fours and sixes to add 80 runs in the powerplay overs. A change in the bowling attack gave DC a good result as Axar Patel cleaned up Rohit (49) who missed his fifty by 1 run. Anrich Nortje then silenced the home crowd by dismissing Suryakumar Yadav for a duck. Ishan departed after playing a fine knock of 42.

MI skipper Hardik Pandya (39) and Tim David (45*) added 60 runs for the fifth wicket. It seemed tough for MI to reach 200, but Shepherd completely changed the game in the death overs. The West Indian all-rounder played a mouth-watering knock of unbeaten 10-ball 39, smashing 4 sixes and 3 fours. Shepherd blasted one of the best pacers in international cricket, Nortje for 32 runs in the final over, powering MI to reach 234/5 in 20 overs.

Chasing a big target, DC failed to make a good start as David Warner (10) departed early. Shaw and Abishek Porel steadied the visitors’ innings with an 88-run partnership. Jasprit Bumrah gave MI a crucial breakthrough, delivering an excellent yorker to bowl out Shaw. Bumrah then removed Porel (41), who struggled to score runs freely. DC kept losing wickets and eventually, lost the game.