Mumbai, May 4: Aggression is best doled out in effective doses. This is a lesson the Delhi Daredevils learnt the hard way even as the Mumbai Indians battled absence and adversity to emerge worthy winners by 29 runs and seven balls to spare over the league leaders in their IPL game at the swank DY Patil Stadium here on Sunday.

It was in effect, a combination of the Daredevils’ challenge imploding and the Indians keeping the pressure on. For that they have stand-in skipper Shaun Pollock and Delhi boys Ashish Nehra to thank.

Pollock followed up on his 15-ball 33 at the end of the Mumbai innings (162/8) with two wickets for 16 runs from his four overs after an initial three-over burst that cost just 11 runs in the course of which he removed in-form batsman Shikhar Dhawan behind Nehra’s removal of Gautam Gambhir in the second over. Both fell in almost identical fashion, slashing hard and flat to Robin Uthappa in the covers.

Still, as long as Sehwag was around, the Daredevils could hope. Seeing wickets fall at the other end, including that of Abraham de Villers (21, 17b) must have shaken Sehwag (40, 20b, 3x4, 3x6) somewhat for he went for a crude slog against the military medium pace of Australian all-rounder Dominic Thornely and spoon up a catch to — you guessed it — Shaun Pollock. The veteran could do nothing wrong on the day.

Sehwag had till then looked dangerous, as he always does when at the crease. Despite the early losses of Gambhir and Dhawan — eerily enough, the last time these two went cheaply, the Daredevils lost as well — he had stayed well ahead of the asking rate with some sweetly timed boundaries and three big sixes including a massive first-ball hit over mid-wicket off Sanath Jayasuriya.

Once the Daredevils skipper fell — after taking the "orange cap" for the league’s highest scorer with 247 runs — the Indians stepped up the pressure. Shoaib Malik kept Delhi interested but he too fell, leaving the lower middle order and the tail with too much to do and it was left to Nehra, Dhawal Kulkarni (2/18) and Dwayne Bravo (1/15) to mop things up as Delhi imploded.

Earlier, Mumbai posted a competent total having been asked to take first strike and should have got a few more but for poor shot selection by frontline batsmen Jayasuriya and Uthappa (22, 21b). Both had settled in — even given the brief time and space available in the T20 format and threw away their wickets with reckless shots.

Jayasuriya (34, 16b, 6x4, 1x6) will feel the pain more. He has been under pressure, more so with Sachin Tendulkar missing out on match after match and had made a rare start, getting to a 16-ball 34 when he gave first change bowler Yo Mahesh the charge.

What would have hurt even more is that he had survived the combined onslaught of McGrath and Asif with the new ball.

For probably the first time in the competition, Delhi’s two lead bowlers failed to break through in their first spell and that in the overall context was an important achievement for Mumbai.

The Indians lost their way somewhat in the middle order cheaply — Bravo, Abhishek Nayar and Saurabh Tiwary all falling cheaply — but the bits and pieces from Thornely (30, 24b) and Pollock’s late blast were eventually enough to lay the Daredevils by their heels and provide the Indians some much needed momentum on the points table.