Mumbai Mar 27 PTI Lalit Yadav played the innings of his life with an unbeaten 48 while Axar Patel smashed 38 not out off just 17 balls as a depleted Delhi Capitals started their IPL campaign with a stunning four-wicket win over Mumbai Indians here on Sunday Chasing a challenging 178 Delhi were down 72 for 5 inside 10 overs but the lesser-known Delhi all-rounder Yadav stayed calm during his 38-ball unbeaten knock to take his side home India all-rounder Patel chipped in with a quick fire 17-ball 38 not out as DC overhauled the target with 10 balls to spare Yadav smashed four boundaries and two sixes while Patel had two hours and three maximums as the duo stitched a match-winning 75-run partnership from 30 balls for the seventh wicket After an ordinary day with the ball 4-0-40-0 Patel kept his best for the run chase after Delhi lost their key batters -- Prithvi Shaw 38 Rishabh Pant 1 Rovman Powell 0 -- cheaply Mumbai looked ordinary in their pace attack with Jasprit Bumrah returning wicketless 32-0-43-0 They were also sloppy on the field as Patel made full use of his dropped catch by Daniel Sams on 15 Sams also leaked 24 runs in the 18th over with Yadav hitting him for back-to-back four and six while Patel hammered a monstrous six in the final ball to seal the chase reaching 179 for 6 in 182 0vers With their star Australian recruit David Warner unavailable for initial few matches Kiwi recruit Tim Seifert sizzled in his new opening role for Delhi He took on Bumrah up front and lofted the Indias pace spearhead over his head for a boundary Seifert dished out another stunner against Bumrah this time a lofted drive over cover in a shot that had class written all over it At the other end Shaw started it off with a six off Basil Thampi as DC cruised to 30 in three overs Rohit introduced leg-spinner Murugan Ashwin 4-0-14-2 in the fourth over and that move paid dividends Ashwin deceived Seifert with a wrong one to clean up the Kiwi wicketkeeper-batter through the gate He next had Mandeep Singh in the space of one delivery with the batter gifting his wicket off a high full toss After Ashwins twin breakthroughs Thampi 4-0-35-3 rocked Delhi with his triple strikes -- Shaw Rovman Powell and Shardul Thakur Earlier wicketkeeper-batter Ishan Kishan showed immense maturity as he anchored Mumbai innings to a fighting 177 for 5 with an unbeaten 81 The 23-year-old opener who became the most expensive buy of the IPL 2022 auction when MI bought him back for Rs 1525 crore proved his worth as he smashed 11 fours and two sixes in his 48-ball unbeaten knock After playing a second-fiddle to his skipper Rohit Sharma 41 inside the Power Play Kishan came on his own to smash his third fifty in a row for MI and 10th overall Delhi put on the brakes in the middle overs riding on Kuldeep Yadavs fine bowling effort of 4-0-18-3 which included the prized wickets of Rohit and Kieron Pollard 3 But Kishan held fort even as wickets fell around him before exploding in the death with Mumbai scoring 59 runs in the final five overs Mumbai debutant Tilak Varma also impressed in his 22 off 15 balls but it was the Jharkhand batter who stepped on the gas in the death overs and also displayed a helicopter shot to prop up the total PTI TAP PDS PDS

Kolkata Nov 21 PTI New Zealand batter Ross Taylor believes playing India in their own backyard is one of the toughest challenges for any side but refused to give insights about their plan to tackle premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin during the upcoming Test series India and inaugural World Test champions New Zealand will square off in a two-Test series beginning on January 25 in Kanpur The contest is part of the second WTC cycle Definitely looking forward to definitely going to be a challenge I think there is no harder assignment than playing India at home or Australia away They are probably the two toughest challenges in Test cricket at the moment But as group we are looking forward to that and we know we are the underdogs but we will be looking foward to putting in a good performance Taylor said on Sunday Any time you play India at home you will always gonna be the underdogs whether you are world no1 or not The veteran Kiwi batter said tacking Indian spin duo of Ashwin and Axar Patel will be key to New Zealands success in the Test series I dont want to give my secrets away just here on being asked whats his plan for Ashwin I dont know what lineup India decide to go with Axar Patel played a big role against England Taylor said in a virtual press conference Now they are going to play three spinners or two spinners obviously Ashwin will be one of them They are very good bowlers especially in these conditions and how we will play them will play a big part in how the series is gonna go He also advised New Zealand batters to be wary of Indias pace attack Fast bowling still remains a main element with the new ball and reverse swing But spin more often plays a big part over here so we could be naive if we assume only spin will play a key part We still gonna have to face a quality seam bowling lineup and reverse swing I think we should also be worried about that but spin is gonna play a big proportion of how we will be going to play the Test Taylor said You have to put some pressure back on the bowlers If I get the opportunity I could bring back the slog sweep shot every now and then Taylor feels adapting to the conditions will also play a big role in deciding their fate in the series They are resting a couple of players but they are still a formidable side The way we adapt to these conditions is going to be the key This conditions are not foreign to us some of the guys have played many times here before We will be Looking forward to hopefully use those experience but we know its gonna be tough PTI SSC SSC ATK ATK