Mumbai Indians 205 for 5 (Tilak 59, Rickelton 41, Kuldeep 2-23) beat Delhi Capitals 193 (Nair 89, Porel 33, Karn 3-36) by 12 runs
Mumbai Indians (MI) clinched a thriller they had no business winning; not certainly after a comeback knock for the ages from Karun Nair, who smashed a 40-ball 89 in a chase of 206. But Karn Sharma, their Impact Sub, cracked open the game with a three-wicket haul, to cause an implosion that ended with a hat-trick of run outs in the penultimate over as Delhi Capitals (DC) fell short by 12 runs.
It meant there are no unbeaten teams left at IPL 2025. DC would rue the two points that were stolen right from under their nose, disrupting their run of four straight wins, as their homecoming at the Arun Jaitley Stadium was met with a heartbreak no one saw coming.
For MI, this was only their second win in six games, but it's the one that will reinvigorate a campaign that threatened to turn pear-shaped less than halfway in.
Nair's comeback
Seven years after his most recent IPL half-century, and three years since he played in the tournament, Nair set the pace in DC's chase after Jake Fraser-McGurk was out first ball.
Coming off a ridiculous run of rich form in the domestic season, Nair's takedown of Jasprit Bumrah in the powerplay - he picked 28 off nine deliveries, including three fours and two sixes - landed the early punches on MI.
Nair was all wrist and hand-eye coordination - whipping Bumrah off his hip with nonchalance and being equally audacious by making room and carving him inside-out over deep extra cover for two sixes. Against spin, he was quick to pick lengths and sweep, and on an occasion reverse-sweep.
He went into overdrive after bringing up a 22-ball half-century and looked set to get to three figures when a magic ball from Mitchell Santner got him. Expecting the wet ball to skid through, Nair played for a straight one, only to see the ball rip square and beat his push to hit top of off.
Five balls later, when Axar Patel was out to a leading edge to give Bumrah his first wicket of the season, MI had some inkling of hope. DC were 145 for 4 at the end of that over, the 13th.
The ball change
IPL's new rule change that allows teams to ask for a new ball to counter dew after 11 overs into the second innings brought MI some much needed relief at the start of the 14th.
Three balls in, relief turned into elation when Tristan Stubbs toe-ended a slog to make it four wickets in four overs. When KL Rahul fell in eerily similar fashion two overs later, the 16th, after being done in the air and off the pitch to top edge a return catch, DC were in the middle of a full-blown collapse.
Even so, with 42 off 24 needed and two batters - Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam who orchestrated a similar comeback against LSG - at the crease, DC still had hope that kept thinning when Trent Boult nailed five yorkers in a gun 17th over that went for just three runs.
This is when Santner, who'd already bowled arguably the ball of the match to get Nair, bounced back after conceding a six and four to Nigam before deceiving him in the air to have him stumped. The relatively drier ball offered plenty of grip and turn, and Santner now had his second.
The hat-trick of run outs
Bumrah's figures as he ran in for his final over, the 19th of the match read 3-0-34-1. With Ashutosh still in, DC had hopes. After refusing a single off the first ball, he hit him for two consecutive fours - a reverse ramped over short third followed by a thick outside edge.
With the equation down to 15 off 8, Ashutosh carved a yorker-length ball to deep point and turned for a second that proved costly. The decision to run the second wasn't the problem; that he had to run around Bumrah as he turned around at the non-striker's end cost him a split-second which eventually had him short of the crease.
Then Kuldeep Yadav and Mohit Sharma were run out off successive deliveries as MI ended with a hat-trick of run-outs to close out the game.
Tilak shines after wristspin twins strike
Tilak Varma was subbed out two games ago for being unable to force the pace. In his first outing after that, he made 56 off 29 in a tall run chase against RCB last week. On Sunday, he top-scored with 59 off 43 to help MI post 205.
It was his eighth IPL half-century, astonishingly his first in a winning cause. The knock provided MI a base, which Naman Dhir maximised to provide the finishing kick.
A floater in the batting order, Dhir 38 off just 17; his fifth-wicket stand off 60 off 33 with Tilak helping MI recover from the wickets of Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya in the space of six deliveries in the middle stages.
DC's wristspin twins Kuldeep and Nigam combined to pick up 4 for 64 off eight overs, after MI threatened to take the game away when Rohit Sharma began by imperiously driving Mitchell Starc for two fours and then scooping him for a six.
Suryakumar Yadav, batting at No. 3 for the first time this season, and Ryan Rickelton too got off to starts but couldn't convert. But just when it seemed as if MI would be restricted, they found saviours in Tilak and Dhir, who gave them a total to bowl at - those extra runs at the end seemingly making a wholesome difference to the result.
