Delhi Capitals’ skipper Faf du Plessis backed his team following the franchise’s disappointing loss against the hosts, Mumbai Indians, in the 63rd encounter of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. Faf du Plessis, captain of Delhi Capitals which was knocked out of contention for a place in the play-offs after losing to Mumbai Indians in the IPL league match in Mumbai on Wednesday night, said the team lost momentum in the last two overs when Mumbai were batting after they bowled well for 18 overs.
Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Santner’s three-wicket haul bundled out the visitors, Delhi Capitals, for 121 runs as the hosts registered a 59-run victory at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday. With this win, Mumbai Indians became the fourth and final team to qualify for the IPL 2025 playoffs. The other three teams for the knockouts are Gujarat Titans, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, and Punjab Kings.
Delhi Capitals Knocked Out Of IPL 2025 Playoffs
Delhi Capitals’ (DC) stand-in captain Faf du Plessis pointed out that they lost their momentum in the last two overs when Mumbai Indians (MI) were batting after bowling well for 17-18 overs, which eventually led to their 59-run defeat at the Wankhede Stadium. The loss saw DC knocked out of contention for the IPL 2025 playoffs, while MI booked the last spot.
Bowling first, it looked like DC would be chasing an under-par total with MI struggling at 132 for 5 after 18 overs. But Suryakumar Yadav and Naman Dhir hammered 48 runs off the last two overs to take MI to 180 and DC were bowled out for 121 in reply. DC’s chase was never smooth, there was a complete batting collapse, Sameer Rizvi (39) and Ashutosh Sharma (18) tried to put in a partnership but Mitchell Santner didn’t let that stay for long. Mukesh Kumar was the only bowler who picked two wickets for DC.
After the match, Delhi Capitals stand-in captain Faf du Plessis opened up about their defeat and mentioned the loopholes that costed heavy for Delhi.
Faf Du Plessis admits what went wrong
Speaking on the team’s performance at the post-match presentation, stand in skipper Faf Du Plessis said admitted the momentum shift by the Mumbai batters in the final two overs where they plundered 48 runs in 12 balls to give MI a healthy total of 180 at the end of 20 overs which at one point thought to be impossible to acheive.
“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.
Further, the right-hand batter Faf Du Plessis lauded young uncapped Indian batter Sameer Rizvi’s mindset during the chase where he scored 39 runs with the help of six fours and a six on a difficult wicket where lot of senior players failed to score runs.
“Rizvi today showed some signs, he’s got some talent there. When you’re playing against a powerful team like this, you need to be at your best all the time and unfortunately for 17-18 overs we were and then the last two overs we were pretty average, With the bat, you need a good start on a surface like that and we didn’t get going at all with the bat. Sums up pretty much our season, we’ve been cold in either batting or bowling in the last 6 or 7 games,” the 40-year-old cricketer added.
In the end, Faf Du Plessis went on to say that the team missed the services of regular skipper Axar Patel (ill) and left-arm speedster Mitchell Starc (opted out) in today’s game against the Mumbai-based franchise.
“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 internationally proven left-arm spinner. On a wicket like that, he would have loved to bowl. Unfortunately, he was very sick the last two days.
“Starc is a fantastic bowler, but especially the spinner on a wicket like that is worth gold. Momentum – I am a big believer that you have to make sure that you never take it for granted. When you are on top of the wave, you’ve got to make sure you don’t lose it as quickly,” the former South African player concluded.
Delhi Capitals who started the IPL 2025 journey with the bang with 5 victories in the first 6 games they played unfortunately slided in the second half only to be knocked out of the tournament. On the other hand Mumbai Indians who had a single win in the first seven matches turned the tables dramatically to win the next matches on the trot to qualify for the playoffs in some style and would now aim to win its 6th IPL title in future days to come.