Talking points: Should Mumbai have unleashed Bumrah on Pant earlier?
Just how big was Rishabh Pant's impact on the Delhi Capitals innings?
Well, after 13 overs of the innings, ESPNCricday's Forecaster had Delhi's final score projected at 165. They got 213 (for 6).
Shikhar Dhawan and Colin Ingram did do a decent repair job after the early wickets, but Dhawan's 43 runs came at a strike rate of 119.44, and while Ingram's 47 came at 146.87, when he fell at the end of the 13th over, Delhi were still at a shaky 112 for 3.
Then came the Pant barrage. All right, it started slowly, with just the one run coming in the first five balls he faced. But another five balls, and he had 22. After 15 balls, Pant was on 41. At that stage, he had already hit five fours and three sixes. His half-century came up off 18 balls - the joint third-fastest in IPL history.
More lusty - very lusty - hits later, he ended with 78 not out in 27 balls.
No batsman has ever scored as many runs in the last six overs in an IPL game than Pant. That was when he had 79 against Sunrisers Hyderabad last season in Delhi. On that occasion, he had faced 28 balls. This time, in that period, he faced just 22. For 77 runs.
Pant sets right some dismal numbers against Bumrah
Pant's IPL record against Jasprit Bumrah before this game makes for interesting reading: 8 runs off 17 balls faced, three dismissals. In short, he couldn't catch a break against his India team-mate.
On Sunday night, a rare occasion when Bumrah's radar at the death was all over the place by his lofty standards, Pant took him apart for 18 runs off the seven balls he faced.
Should Mumbai have unleashed Bumrah on Pant earlier? In hindsight, given how Pant went, perhaps yes. Bumrah did get his lengths wrong on occasion, but Pant's strike rate of 257 against the paceman was still well below the rate he scored at against all other bowlers except Hardik Pandya.
Turning it on through the on-side
Sixty-three of his 78 runs came through the leg-side, including each one of his seven memorable sixes. There was a one-handed swing off a slower one from Rasikh Salam, a full-blooded whip off Bumrah into the deep midwicket stands, and Mumbai's persistent short-ball tactic came a cropper on the night: Pant clobbered 39 runs off 12 short ones he faced.
Taking off from where he finished IPL 2018
Last year, Pant batted three times fewer than Orange Cap winner Kane Williamson, but scored only 51 fewer runs than him. The value of his runs, coming as they did for the bottom-placed side on the league table, put him right on top of our Smart Stats leaderboard, comfortably ahead of the rest of the pack.
Capitals were going at a rate of 8.6 when he walked in on Sunday night, and after a few sighters against Hardik Pandya, Pant's assault saw his team smash 101 runs off the last seven, the third-most ever at the Wankhede, a stadium that has seen its share of run-fests over the years.
On the Smart Stats stakes, Pant's 78 runs were worth 123, considering when he came into bat and his contribution relative to that of the other batsmen in the innings, another illustration of his value to this Capitals side.