Data Shorts: Karn, Santner spin it around for MI

Within 24 hours after a 246-run target had been gunned down without breaking sweat in Hyderabad, the action shifted to Delhi for the first time in IPL 2025 - another unforgiving venue for bowlers.

200-plus scores were racked in eight out of the 10 innings in Delhi in IPL 2024, and the short boundaries only add to the challenge. Last season, spinners went at 10.48 runs an over, only marginally less than 10.54 in Hyderabad among the 13 venues used.

However, there was a risk-reward element too. The strike-rate for spin at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was 17.2 last year - the best among the 10 venues that hosted at least five matches. The trend continued on Sunday, as spinners bagged nine of the 12 wickets (barring run-outs), with good length deliveries doing maximum damage.

DC spinners bagged 3/34 at an economy of 6.58 from good length, and MI batters countered the ploy by using the sweep to great effect (conventional or slog) - scoring 35 off the 11 such strokes attempted. 18 off 6 came off the ones from good length, while also accounting for Rohit Sharma's dismissal, who was outfoxed by the variation (googly).

By the time MI spinners came into the attack, DC were well on course, with Karun Nair having blazed to 50 off 22. Mitchell Santner, who had a solitary wicket from his first five games of the season, was struck for a boundary off a short ball in his first over by Abishek Porel.

Meanwhile, Karn Sharma was greeted by a slog-swept six by Nair, mirroring Suryakumar Yadav's tactics from the first half. Karn got the better of Porel by tossing one up soon after being hit into the stands, but Nair brought out the reverse and conventional sweeps to close out the over with consecutive fours.

The right-hander pounced on another short one from Santner, before the left-armer found the perfect one to breach his defence: a 90.5 kmph ball pitched on back-of-a-length, and spun away sharply to take the top of off.

A ball-change followed shortly after Jasprit Bumrah removed Axar Patel, and the game was about to take a decisive twist. Despite heavy dew, Santner and Karn found better control with the changed ball, which also aided for extra bounce, making the sweeps and slog a riskier option.

KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs, the pair that had orchestrated DC's tricky chase against RCB earlier in the week, were undone by exactly that, finding top-edges in successive overs from the wrist-spinner.

Hardik Pandya's decision to bowl Santner in the 18th raised a few eyebrows, and a six and a four by Vipraj Nigam threatened to tilt the balance again. That sequence eventually culminated in a setup.

The six had come off a 92.6 kmph delivery, the four that followed was a result of brilliant adjustment to one thrown wide at 97.1 kmph, and a leg-bye came off one fired in at 95.7kmph. When Vipraj came on strike next, Santner, perhaps having spotted the footwork early enough, slowed it down to 74.7 kmph wide outside off (his slowest delivery of the night) to have him stumped.

MI spinners by lengths in Match 29 (excluding extras)

The damage had been done, and the awareness of the opponent's rich death-bowling flair caused further panic. Fittingly, Santner had another shot to close it out, and he was bang on target yet again, this time from short mid-wicket.