Delhi Capitals stand-in captain Faf du Plessis admitted the franchise lost momentum in the last two overs against Mumbai Indians after their 59-run loss at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai in the ongoing IPL 2025 on Wednesday.
DC were able to keep MI at bay for the majority of the innings on a difficult track and had them 123-5 after 16.3 overs. However, Suryakumar Yadav and Naman Dhir flipped the switch and added 57 runs off the last 21 balls.
While Yadav scored a match-winning knock of 73 runs off just 43 balls, Dhir smashed 24 runs off just eight deliveries to help MI post a par score of 180 runs on the board.
On the other hand, Delhi Capitals were skittled out for 121 runs as none of the batters could breach the 40-run mark. With this loss, Delhi Capitals were knocked out of the playoffs race.
Faf du Plessis said after the loss, “We were excellent today in the field. The guys showed great fight. The bowlers pitched up, obviously not the easiest pitch to bat on, probably made the bowlers’ job a little bit easier. But still, it’s a very strong batting line-up and I thought we were excellent and then just let it slip there in the last 2 overs. Momentum is a real thing in cricket, the way that they counter-punched to get almost 50 in the last 2 overs, all the hard work that we did for 17-18 overs … lost that momentum.”
The South African veteran said they deeply missed the services of their captain, Axar Patel, who was ruled out due to illness.
Faf concluded, “Especially Axar on a wicket like that. If you look at the way that Mitch Santner bowled, they are very similar bowlers. To bowl four overs, I think he went for around 10 runs, Axar is that kind of class bowler, an international proven left-arm spinner. On a wicket like that, he would have loved to bowl. Unfortunately, he was very sick the last two days.”
Delhi Capitals will play their last league stage match against Punjab Kings at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur on Saturday.
