Young batsman Krunal Pandya produced a blinder of an innings scoring 86 runs off only 37 balls as Mumbai Indians defended their massive 206-4 against Delhi Daredevils to record a convincing 80-run victory at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.
This win by a huge margin has also boosted the net run-rate of Mumbai at a crucial time as they move above Gujarat Lions to third place in the points table.
Pandya's knock was laced with half a dozen towering sixes and seven boundaries as he shared a 98-run fiery stand with opener Martin Guptill to power Mumbai to a commanding 206 for four.
Defending the commanding total, Mumbai Indians' bowlers stepped up to dish out a splendid performance and bowl out Delhi for a paltry 126.
Making his comeback in the side, pacer Vinay Kumar provided the first breakthrough rattling the stumps of young Mayank Agarwal.
Quinton de Kock was playing some fabulous strokes on both sides of the wicket, but regular fall of wicket dented Delhi's momentum in a mammoth chase.
Harbhajan Singh dismissed Karun Nair, while another talented youngster Sanju Samson was brilliantly run-out by Pandya.
It was Pandya again, who delivered the knockout punch to Delhi by dismissing their top batsman De Kock, who was adjudged caught behind by wicketkeeper Jos Butler. De Kock scored 40 off 28 balls.
India's U-19 star Rishabh Pant hit a few lusty blows in company of senior batsman JP Duminy.
However, speedster Jasprit Bumrah's triple strike dismissing Duminy, Pant and Amit Mishra rattled all hopes for Delhi to spring a surprise.
A short cameo by the dangerous Chris Morris (20 off 16) was halted by his run-out with Ambati Rayudu firing a good throw from the deep.
Earlier, invited to bat, Mumbai lost Rohit Sharma (31) after a steady start but Pandya and Guptill came up with very aggressive knocks that blew away the rival attack.
They added 98 runs in his 8.2 overs for the second wicket wicket, steering the side to a mammoth total.
Pandya threw his bat at everything and anything but at the same time showed tremendous control, finding the boundaries with consummate ease.
The left-hander was eventually bowled by Morris in the fag end of the innings.
South African spinner Imran Tahir ended up bleeding 59 runs in his four wicket-less overs while skipper Zaheer Khan was the most economical with 23 runs in his four overs.
After Rohit's fall, Daredevils spin trio -- Amit Mishra, Tahir and Shahbaz Nadeem -- looked like making an impact but Guptil and Pandya ripped apart the attack. After finding their eye in, they started to punish the bowlers with ease and the spin trio collectively leaked 143 runs in their 12 overs.
Guptill brought the team's hundred with a long-on six off Tahir and followed it with an inside out maximum. Tahir had bowled well in tandem with Mishra but the Mumbai Indians batsmen were in good control.
They were beaten a few times but struck very powerfully to find boundaries to make up for the dot balls. Krunal joined the Tahir-bashing by striking a straight six and a four to cream off 23 runs in the 13th over.
Pandya reached his fifty with a fluent six over mid-wicket off Nadeem and celebrated the milestone with a jump in the air and gestures towards the dug out.
Skipper Zaheer introduced himself to attack to stop the rut and he succeeded by sending back the Kiwi batsman, who could not connect the full toss and Karun Nair took the catch.
It brought big-hitting Kieron Pollard to the crease but it was Pandya who continued to torment the bowlers. He launched leg-spinner Mishra for a four and two sixes but was cleaned up by Chris Morris, who also sent back Pollard (3) in the same over.
Jos Buttler (18) ended the innings in style with a six over long-on off Morris.
