MI assault in the last two overs changed the game, says Faf du Plessis as Delhi Capitals bow out of the IPL.
MI assault in the last two overs was crucial in changing the outcome of the game.
They lost by 59 runs at the Wankhede Stadium after losing their momentum in the final two overs when the Mumbai Indians (MI) were batting after bowling brilliantly for 17–18 overs, according to stand-in skipper Faf du Plessis. Due to the defeat, MI secured the final slot in the IPL 2025 playoffs, while DC was eliminated from consideration.
With MI labouring at 132 for 5 after 18 overs, it appeared that DC, who bowled first, would be chasing an unsatisfactory total. However, MI reached 180 after Suryakumar Yadav and Naman Dhir pounded 48 runs off the final two overs, and DC was bowled out for 121 in response.
“I thought we were excellent today in the field. The guys showed great fight. Obviously, not the easiest pitch to bat on, so probably made the bowlers’ job a little bit easier. But still, it’s a very strong batting line-up (of MI), and I thought we were excellent,” du Plessis said after the game. “And then [we] just let it slip there in the last two overs which… momentum is a real thing in cricket. So I thought the way that they counterpunched there to get almost 50 in the last two overs really [cost us]. All that hard work that we did for 17-18 overs, [we] lost that momentum.”
Prior to this game, DC was one point behind MI and had dropped four of their previous five games, so they were under pressure to win. Due to illness, they also lost their regular captain, Axar Patel, for this match. According to du Plessis, Patel could have been helpful on the Wanhede track, where left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner finished with 4-0-11-3.
“I’m a big believer that you’ve got to make sure you take [momentum] and you never take it for granted,” he said. “So when you’re playing like that and you’re performing well, then everything falls your way. And we could feel like the last couple of games, there was really a fight to try and get that momentum back and not doing the basics well in both departments.
“So it shows you that when you’re on top of that wave, you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose it as quickly.”