DC vs MI, 69th Match at Mumbai, IPL, May 21 2022 - Match Result

11.25 pm Ricky Ponting is stoic in the Delhi dugout. Pant shakes all of his teammates hands with a few noticeable gulps in his throat. It'll take him a few days and perhaps more than that to move past today's events, the non-review of Tim David's edge behind first ball at the top of the list. Last place Mumbai somehow prevent Delhi from taking the final playoff berth.

Mumbai Indians batting hero Tim David: "It's nice to finish with a win. It's a good feeling. We got close the other night. We can't ask for much more than to finish with a win. Ishan as he walked off, he said to me, 'The wicket's gotten flatter.' So it was holding a little bit with the slower balls but you just have to hold your shape, back your game, keep it simple. I think there was a couple of baby sixes today so I got away with a couple. I think it's just about repetition and trying to hold your shape. Maybe early on in the season, I might have been leaning back on the ball and hitting it in the air so I worked really hard on trying to stay over the ball. It's been tough but our last six games, we played some really good cricket as a team. We won four games which is really promising for our group. We got a bit of confidence from that so that's really important for us moving forward. [Asked about being a former RCB player] I got a message from Faf this morning. It was a picture of him, Maxi and Virat all in MI kit. Maybe I'll have to post to Instagram later. [Asked about first ball edge behind] I heard a noise but I wasn't sure. When there was no review, crack on. I didn't think I hit it at the time, I thought I hit my pad. But that's how I'm going."

Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant: "I think most of the game we were on top of the game. But on a few occasion when we were on top of the game, we let it slip away from our grasp. That's one of the things we have been doing throughout the tournament. I think we were not good enough to win this match I guess. [Dealing with the pressure] I think it's not about the pressure but at the same time we could have done better execution, better planning. That's the only thing and we have been missing that a lot throughout the tournament. So we have to learn from our mistakes next season and come back as a strong team again next year. [Defending 159] I think we were 5-7 runs short. We were not short much. We actually really bowled well throughout the tournament but dew came in on the latter half of today's match and we missed our execution. We didn't bowl to our planning. It's hard but at the same time we have to take it on our chin and learn from it. [Asked about not reviewing the Tim David edge behind] I thought there was something but everyone standing in the circle was not convinced enough. So I was asking should we go up. At the end, I didn't take the review. [Chat with Ricky Ponting] The only thing we were discussing is to tell bowlers to keep it simple and not try too many things because in these crunch games, we don't have to create something different. We just have to keep doing the things that are working for us and keep believing that."

Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma: "I said it at the toss as well, we were here to win the game. I know a couple of teams were watching us keenly but for us it was important to get what we wanted to get out of this game, to make sure that we finish on a high and to take some positives from this last game and try to see where we didn't do well this season and try to correct those mistakes. Once we lost eight on the trot, it was tough. It's never easy when you lose games like that. All we wanted to do was to just come out and see where we made mistakes and try to rectify those mistakes. I thought we did pretty much well in the second half of the tournament. So a lot of positives came out of the second half, something we can pride ourselves in. We just wanted to finish on a high. When they got to 160, I was a little nervous because it was not a 160 pitch. There was a lot of help for the bowlers, as we saw in the first innings when we were bowling. It was a slowish kind of a pitch and got sluggish toward the end as well. It wasn't coming onto the bat. When you restrict a team to 150-160, it's about one good partnership and then you're in the game. That's what happened with Ishan and Brevis. They got that crucial partnership and got us in a good situation. [Reflecting on the season] There are a lot of things. It's the collective performance that gets you through and that was something that was missing. We didn't come together as a group performing. Some days it was the bowling unit who was doing pretty well and the batters didn't cash in. If batters did well, then bowlers were off the radar a little bit. That was happening throughout the season. When you want to win games, tournaments, qualifications and all of those, you have to perform in all three departments. That's something we missed in the first half but the second half was brilliant. Yes it was a bit too late, but at least we can take something from this tournament. Every time we go into the auction, that is something we plan for, keeping one eye on who is going to play for us for a couple of cycles and then invest in them. They might not come good in the first or second season but that is something we take pride in, getting a few of those youngsters who can eventually go on to play for their country and come and play for Mumbai as well and perform really well."

Jasprit Bumrah is the Player of the Match: "I was just trying to have fun, enjoy my game and trying to be clear while bowling. That's the best feeling when I'm able to do that so I'm very happy with how the last game went. Usually the wicket is quite fast over here. There's some pace and bounce. But this was quite unlike, it was a little slow so the bounce was also less and there was some grip in the wicket. So we quickly analyzed that. There's not a lot of swing here. We analyzed what were the difficult options. You bowl stump to stump, change your pace and then you have your yorkers. All of that assessment was made on the ground and we were trying to execute that. [Role as a leader for younger bowlers] Basically helping them out because when you're new to the game or coming up the ranks, you have to learn a lot about your game. So eventually understand how situations work in the game and try and help the youngsters however you can because in the heat of the moment, there's a lot of pressure and noise from outside as well and their own expectations. This is how the whole atmosphere goes. Then the senior player comes in and we try to talk however much we can and give them the best atmosphere we can. [Keeping in touch with teammates to track progress in between IPL seasons] Of course. There's a lot of eye to keep on because improving your game is a yearly process and it doesn't stop. Even if you play for 20 years, you keep on improving. Obviously everyone will be in touch and see how everyone is going before we meet next year and then try to analyze before we come next year what we did wrong and how we can finish higher. So we try to keep all of that in mind coming back next year with a fresh mindset. [Picking up wickets late in season compared to early season] Nothing was there in my head. I was very happy with my rhythm. I came from two good Test matches I played against Sri Lanka. I was very happy with my execution. I was very happy with my processes in my hand. If I'm executing what I can, that's all I can do. Some days I might get wickets off bad balls but that doesn't mean I try to come and execute bad balls. So I try to keep things simple, have my own assessment of what works and whatever I was trying to execute. If I have done that, then I'll accept that."

That's it for today's live coverage of a dramatic and memorable (not always for the right reasons) contest which decided the final playoff berth in favor of Royal Challengers Bangalore. A dead rubber tomorrow before the playoffs start on Tuesday. Come back tomorrow for live coverage of the regular season finale between Punjab Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. On behalf of my commentary partner Ekanth, I'm Peter Della Penna. Take care!

Five runs off six balls. If Delhi can defend four, they'll be in the playoffs. If Mumbai gets five, RCB takes the final playoff berth.

AyBe: "Peter I disagree with your disagreement. We need the right decision to be made. It is an embarrassment that we are talking about a strategic blunder by Pant rather than that the wrong decision was made. Pant's job is to get the batsman out. Not to find out if the umpire is wrong. This is cricket being brainless". Disagree again. The context is that they had two reviews left with 5.3 overs to go. You have to review there.

Ashwin : "Being a cricket umpire is my dream job. You get to watch exciting cricket from the best spot in the ground, and have no job pressure since all your mistakes are blamed on the captain for not getting his reviews correct. Brilliant." Pretty much nowadays!

Sarim: "One unfortunate thing about DRS is that it's taken a lot of heat off the Umpires. People are going to talk about Pant not taking a review but won't mention how the Umpire missed the howler in the first place". I disagree. Umpires are off the hook nowadays when the players have a mechanism to rectify officiating errors. That goes for just about all pro sports now worldwide.

Ramandeep enters with 15 needed off 13 to win.

So Pant's refusal to review Tim David's nick behind first ball of his innings costs Delhi 34 runs off the next 9 balls that David faced before getting out. Stunning. Fans and pundits will be talking about that strategic blunder for years to come.

Sara Tendulkar is waving her Mumbai flag on the balcony with smiling approval.

Had Axar gone for the catch on the previous ball and taken it, David would not have been on strike for this ball and instead it would've been the new batter.

Crowd suddenly breaks out into a chant of "R-C-B! R-C-B!" Hmmmm....

29 off 18 balls to win. Mumbai favorites at this stage with David rollicking along at a strike rate near 300.

Rudra Varma: "Fair to say, Pant is having a nightmare of a game as Captain today. Happens to the best of them, unfortunate that it's happening at the worst possible time. Feel bad for Pant."

Reju: "Pants captaincy credentials are exposed blatantly. He is making mistake after mistake. Has that dropped catch messed his mind?" Looks that way.

Himanshu: "To be honest, I am a DC fan, but if they lose from here, they will be themselves to blame."