As it happened - Suryakumar Yadav blitz, Mitchell Santner-Jasprit Bumrah's six take MI into playoffs

Bumrah is so good at this. The yorker. But also the dipping one. He angles it in on off from wide of the crease. Madhav Tiwari, on IPL debut, thinks it is a low full toss which he can put away. He's wrong. And that is shown by the flattened stumps and the loud crowd.

DC 108 for 8 in 15.3, need 73 off 27

Exhibit 1:

Rizvi had managed to gauge the surface better than most DC batters. He was desisting hitting against the angle. Went after inside-out shots, straight shots and only across the line when the ball was on the pad. But when Santner tossed one up around middle, Rizvi could not resist. There was no protection at deep midwicket and he wanted to exploit that. He went for a slog across the line but the ball dipped under his blade and dismantled middle.

Exhibit 2:

Ashutosh had come out all guns blazing and injected the momentum DC needed. His shot selection was clear. But not the one that ended his stay. Once again Santner's loopy ball enticed him to come forward and go over cover that was left open. There was a slip in place, too. But Ashutosh overbalanced, missed the ball because of the sharp spin and Rickelton did the rest.

DC 105 for 7 after 15, need 76 in 30

DC lost two wickets in nine balls. But that did not curb Sameer Rizvi and Ashutosh Sharma's intent when spin came on. Karn Sharma bore the brunt of it. He was taken for 16 runs by the duo, who still continue to keep DC's hopes alive.

Then Deepak Chahar's over goes for 11, courtesy two fours from Rizvi (one via the outside edge).

DC 95 for 5 in 13, need 86 in 42 and it starts to drizzle!

The 23-ball partnership between Vipraj Nigam and Sameer Rizvi has been DC's longest so far. It did not have a lot of momentum but both batters possess the ability to explode. But Santner ensured that does not happen. The surface is gripping. He bowled a length ball around off that stopped a touch. Nigam could only spoon it back to the bowler.

An over later, Bumrah made Wankhede's decibel levels go high up. He delivered what could be a telling blow for DC - trapping Stubbs lbw. He speared in a length ball that squared Stubbs up a bit and hit him on the pad. He took the review but to no avail.

DC 65 for 5, 9.2 overs, need 116 off 64

Will Jacks does what he is brought on for - dismiss the left-hander.

Would you believe it if I say Jacks is the most successful MI spinner in IPL 2025? He has eight wickets, the same as Karn Sharma. But he has bowled more overs than Karn. Only santner has bowled more overs of spin for MI.

Once again Jacks gets one to turn past Abishek Porel's outside edge and Rickelton does the rest. It was not an easy call for the TV umpire, but one frame where Porel's back let was marginally in the air when the bails lit up, sealed the deal.

Thank you, bye-bye, good night, Rahul! The Wankhede loves what it is seeing. And KLR's stay is short-lived.

Rahul looks to charge down against Boult - just balls after outside-edging another one for four. But all he manages is a thick outside edge to the wicketkeeper. This is just the third time Rahul has been dismissed by Boult in T20 cricket.

DC 20 for 2 in 2.4 overs, need 161 from 104

Faf du Plessis is short of runs. Can't say short of form. Because if he was short of form, perhaps he wouldn't have got off the mark the way he did - a pristine extra cover drive on the first ball against Boult, of all.

But he is short of runs. Who knows, if Axar would have been fit, du Plessis could have made for Sediqullah Atal.

MI also did an unusual thing - having long-on for a right-hand bat against a right-arm quick in the second over of the innings. Chahar observed DC's bowling quite closely. He knows the slower balls are tough to put away. So he resorts to it early and bowls a 120-kph full ball. Du Plessis can only hit it down Santner's throat at long-on. Any more pace on it and it could have gone the distance.

KL Rahul loves the Wankhede. He averaged 63.40 before today in the IPL here. Rahul also loves Mumbai Indians. He has six fifties and three hundreds against them. He also has an average above 74 against MI and strikes at 135-plus.

Generally, right-hand batters struggles against left-arm pace and Trent Boult. Not Rahul - average 49, strike rate 148.48. But tonight, he edged Boult on the first ball but it flew well away from short third for four.

Interesting to see how he bats tonight. It is quite humid, which is perhaps why Mukesh battled cramps. Rahul did not field and is an Impact Player because he took a blow to his knee at training yesterday. Will it hamper him tonight?

DC 10 for 0 after 1 over

Suryakumar Yadav in the first 15 overs - 33 runs in 26 balls, strike rate 126.92 Suryakumar Yadav from 16th over onwards - 40 runs in 17 balls, strike rate 235.29

That was death-overs batting and some from SKY and MI. They score 62 off the last four overs, 48 of which came in the final two overs. Suryakumar was at his powerful best and yet did not leave his deft touches behind. Not to forget the finishing touches from Naman Dhir, who finishes 24 not out from 8 balls. The pair added an unbeaten 57 off just 21 balls.

The track is not too flat. The slower ones are gripping on it. Did not look like there is a lot of dew aruond. Only a couple of rollers are on the ground to wipe out whatever wetness there might be on the outfield. Will MI seal the last playoffs berth tonight? Remember, whenever they have lost two or more wickets in the powerplay, MI have lost the match this season. Today they were 54 for 2 after six.

Surely a momentum-changing over for MI. On a surface where slower balls have been hard to hit, Mukesh offers pace and travels. He offers width to Suryakumar, who sends it into the extra cover stands. And then Dhir takes him for 4, 6, 6, 4. The second six that Dhir hit was off a slower one that was dug in. The long-on fielder was briefly in play but doesn't prevent the six. The most expensive over of the night so far - 27 runs.

The pitch is not too easy to bat on. The ball is gripping and DC have resorted to a lot of slower deliveries. Yet, Suryakumar has managed to force some pace of it, especially in the latter part of his innings. He has scored a 36-ball fifty. Not among his most fluent ones. But certainly one of the more crafty and crucial ones.

In the tactics board ahead of this match, Sidharth Monga wrote how DC's spinners have done well against Tilak and Suryakumar.

DC bowled seven of their eight overs of wristspin when the left-right pair was in the middle. And Kuldeep and Nigam have come away with combined figures of 8-0-47-1. That points to a job well done.

The track used today doesn't look to be conducive to strokeplay especially once the ball gets slightly old. Sidharth explains to me that MI perhaps felt they did not need 180 or 200 tonight, and hence SKY and Tilak didn't go too hard in the middle overs. They are banking to explode at the death. That time is now.

MI 126 for 5 in 17

Mukesh finally breaks the 55-run partnership between Tilak and Suryakumar. He bowls a slower offcutter and digs it into the surface from over the wicket. He had four men manning the leg side boundary. Tilak looks to flat bat it over the on side but holes out to long-on.

Superb over from Kuldeep. Not eventful but effective. MI want to break free but he has not allowed that to happen. He keeps Tilak guessing. Bowls a full one that Tilak defends. Then flights one up, Tilak charges and inside-edges one onto his pad. Once again he skips down the surface and pushes it towards covers, wants a non-existent run. Finally he manages to get the scorecard moving, thanks to the length ball on the pad. Fifth ball, he whips it through midwicket. Kuldeep helping DC apply the squeeze, MI faithfuls at the Wankhede can only watch in silance.

MI 99 for 3 in 13

MI have found the going slightly tough, following Rohit and Rickelton's reasonably early departure. Two of those sixes came off Rickelton's bat.

Right on cue, though, Tilak gets low and scoops Chameera right over the wicketkeeper's head for half a dozen. Some shot that.

MI 90 for 3 in 11

Suryakumar almost falls to Kuldeep early. He gets a top edge on the sweep to the left of short fine leg. Mukesh charges to his left and flings himself off the ground but only manages to get a hand to it.

A ball later, though, Kuldeep gets the set Rickelton, who heaves one to deep midwicket for 25 off 18.

A change of end works for Mukesh. He bowled the opening over from the pavilion end and was brought on from the media end for the last over of the powerplay. He almost got Jacks lbw on the first ball of his second spell but Jacks had got a thick inside edge. On the third ball, he floats one full, Jacks looks to go over mid-off but skies it high. Nigam has his eyes on the ball as he runs backwards and pouches it safely.

Whenever MI have lost two or more wickets in the powerplay in IPL 2025, they have gone on to lose the match.

MI's use of Will Jacks with the bat this season has been interesting. When they have lost a wicket inside the powerplay, they have sent Jacks in at No. 3. But if their openers bat till around the end of the powerplay, they have held him back. And that is with a good reason.

Until this match, Jacks struck at 155.55 against fast bowling but only at 98.57 against spin. He was dismissed four times in 70 balls of spin. Moreover, his strike rate in the middle overs (7-16) also dips to 116.66 as opposed to 145.45 in the powerplay.

DC perhaps knew some of these numbers and introduced legspinner Vipraj Nigam as early as in the fourth over. Result? Three dots in the five balls bowled to Jacks - one of them beaten on the outside edge. But he erred on the other two occasions, bowling a bit short. And that allowed Jacks ample time to go back and heave it over wide mid-on for fours.

MI 34 for 1 in 4 overs

In IPL 2025, Rohit has been dismissed by a left-arm quick three times in eight innings. All of those dismissals have been inside the powerplay. Which is why it was slightly surprising when DC decided to leave out T Natarajan from the XI.

But they had Mustafizur and he does the trick straight away. He angles a length ball across Rohit, who looks to go hard over the off side. All he manages is a thick outside edge which Porel holds on to with a stretch. Pin-drop silence at the Wankhede as Rohit departs for a run-a-ball 5. First ball against a left-arm fast bowler and Rohit's stay ends. It was the fourth time in 73 balls that Rohit fell to Mustafizur in all men's T20s.

MI 23 for 1 in 2.2 overs

You can sense how good a touch a batter is in by watching just a few deliveries. Ryan Rickelton timed a couple of crisp drives against Mukesh in the first over. One of those was stopped by a diving du Plessis at mid-off. And then on the first ball of the second over, Rickelton crisply timed a cover drive straight to the man in the ring. Dushmantha Chameera was bowling with a deep backward point and long leg.

So when Rickelton received two full balls, he took full toll. He tonked the first one over long-on, when Chameera came over the wicket. And then when he went around, Rickelton got the desired room to send it sailing into the lower tier of the long-off stand.

Rohit enjoys a good match-up against Mukesh, even if the sample size is small. He shows his intent early by capitalising on an overpitched ball. He leans forward and thrashes it over cover to get the near-full Wankhede up on its feet.

No Axar Patel for DC, who are captained by Faf du Plessis today. Axar is down with a bad flu. So Madhav Tiwari, a seam-bowling allrounder from Madhya Pradesh, makes his IPL debut. Actually he was part of the PBKS-DC game that was abandoned midway. DC have two wristspinners while MI have only one in Mitchell Santner. Ashwani Kumar is likely to come in when they bowl later in the evening.

KL Rahul is named among the subs. He got hit in the knee during training yesterday. So he is likely to come in for DC's chase and continue to open the batting. I suspect Axar being ruled out meant du Plessis had to captain. And that must have meant Afghanistan's Sediqullah Atal would have to wait. He batted for quite long in the nets yesterday.

Without Axar in the XI, Rohit Sharma could breathe easy. But there's one left-arm fast bowler in Mustafizur Rahman, against whom he might have to be cautious. Rohit has been dismissed thrice by left-arm seamers in this IPL.

Mumbai Indians bat-first XI: Rohit Sharma, Ryan Rickelton (wk), Will Jacks, Suryakumar Yadav, N Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya (capt), Naman Dhir, Mitchell Santner, Deepak Chahar, Trent Boult, Jasprit Bumrah
Impact subs: Ashwani Kumar, Corbin Bosch, Karn Sharma, Raj Bawa, Satyanarayana Raju

Delhi Capitals bowl-first XI: Faf du Plessis (capt), Abishek Porel (wk), Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Tristan Stubbs, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Dushmantha Chameera, Kuldeep Yadav, Mustafizur Rahman, Mukesh Kumar
Impact subs: KL Rahul, Sediqullah Atal, Karun Nair, Tripurana Vijay, Manvanth Kumar

The buzz is slowly picking up. Surprisingly the Marine Drive, that is choc-a-block on MI match days, was quite empty till about an hour ago. At the moment, the ground is about half full. Perhaps the inclement weather forecast put people off.

In the middle, Faf du Plessis was the first to do some shadow batting from the pavilion end. Tristan Stubbs then followed suit from the opposite end before proceeding to take some high catches. Jasprit Bumrah had a friendly chat with umpire J Madanagopal while Deepak Chahar was marking his run-up. Mukesh Sharma and Mustafizur Rahman mark their run-ups for DC. So DC are planning to tinker with their bowling attack. Who could make way? T Natarajan perhaps? Or Dushmantha Chameera? If it is the latter, then DC could play Sediqullah Atal for one of the Indian batters.

Okay, Natarajan has also marked his run-up for DC. And indications from the MI camp point towards Corbin Bosch retaining his place ahead of Mitchell Santner. Ashwani Kumar likely to start if MI bowl first, because he has marked his run-up. A possible IPL debut for DC's Madhav Tiwari, a seam-bowling allrounder from Madhya Pradesh.

Hopefully a clear weather and an exciting game awaits us this evening.