New Delhi: his time by smashing a 90 off 51 balls to guide Delhi Capitals to a comfortable six-wicket win over Mumbai Indians and record their second straight win of IPL 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
In the chase of 163, DC were struggling at 73/3, before Rizvi turned the game in his team’s favour by hitting seven fours and as many sixes at a strike-rate of 176.47. He stitched stands of 66 and 78 with Pathum Nissanka (44) and David Miller (21 not out) as DC completed the chase with 11 balls to spare.
Rizvi’s seven sixes are the most hit by a DC batter against MI in IPL history, and as an Impact Player, only Jos Buttler has ever scored more in a single IPL innings. Mumbai, who had posted 162/6 on a two-paced surface, will look back at their spin bowling with some concern – it was there that Delhi found their opening, and Rizvi fully cashed on it.
DC’s pursuit of 163 began on a false note – Deepak Chahar’s inswinger found the inside edge on KL Rahul’s flick and was caught by Ryan Rickelton. Nitish Rana pushed Jasprit Bumrah to the leg side, but the hesitation and then committing to the single was a fatal indecision as he was run out by the pacer.
Pathum Nissanka refused to let early tension get to him. He pulled Chahar to the fine-leg fence, flicking and reverse sweeping Mitchell Santner, before pulling, lofting, and bludgeoning Shardul Thakur for two fours and a six. Nissanka eventually top-edged a Santner delivery to short fine leg, which meant that Naman Dhir’s previously dropped catch cost only three runs.
Rizvi, DC’s impact player, was slow to begin with, before lofting and cutting Santner for boundaries. He opened up in imperious fashion in the 11th over – slashing, ramping, cutting and lofting Corbin Bosch for 20 runs. The crowd were on its feet when Rizvi brought up his fifty off 31 balls with back-to-back sixes against impact player Mayank Markande.
The assault from Rizvi meant MI were forced to bring back Bumrah for a breakthrough, which didn’t yield the desired result. Chahar returned to stem the run-flow, but Rizvi whipped him over deep backward square leg for six, after cutting him for four. Thakur came under attack from Rizvi – a four flayed past backward point was followed by one drilled through mid-off.
The highlight, though, was a muscular six over deep extra cover against the off-cutter. David Miller joined the boundary-hitting part by driving and flicking Bumrah for boundaries. Though Rizvi missed his century by just 10 runs after holing out to long-off against Bosch, the result was a foregone conclusion by then – a win for DC to begin their home run on a high.
Brief scores:
Mumbai Indians 162/6 in 20 overs (Suryakumar Yadav 51, Rohit Sharma 35; Mukesh Kumar 2-26, Axar Patel 1-22) lost to Delhi Capitals 164/4 in 18.1 overs (Sameer Rizvi 90, Pathum Nissanka 44; Deepak Chahar 1-20, Mitchell Santner 1-22) by six wickets
(IANS)
