IPL 2023: Delhi Capitals vs Mumbai Indians, Match 16 - Talking Points and Who Said What?

In another last-ball thriller, Mumbai Indians beat bottom-placed Delhi Capitals by six wickets to record their first win of the Indian Premier League 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on April 11. Jason Behrendorff and Piyush Chawla took three wickets each to bowl out Delhi on 172 runs. David Warner continued his red-hot form by smashing his third fifty in IPL 2023 while Axar Patel excelled with a 25-ball-54-run knock for Delhi.

Ishan Kishan and Rohit Sharma gave Mumbai a flying start with a 71-run stand for the opening wicket. Ishan ran himself out in the eighth over but Rohit kept Mumbai in the game with a match-defining 68-run stand for the second wicket with Tilak Varma. Rohit brought up his first fifty of this season to take Mumbai closer to the target but Mukesh Kumar took two wickets in the 16th over before Mustafizur Rahman dismissed Rohit in the 17th over to balance the game for Delhi.

Anrich Nortje almost defended five runs in the last over but Tim David managed to pull two runs off the last delivery to lift Mumbai to their maiden win in IPL 2023. A win boosted Mumbai to the eighth position in the points table while Delhi struggle at the bottom with four defeats in four games.

Let's look at the Talking Points from the game-

Rohit Sharma returns to form but Suryakumar Yadav registers another golden duck

Rohit showed a few glimpses of him returning to form in the previous game against Chennai Super Kings and has now cleared all doubts with a match-winning knock. Rohit's return to form will be a big boost for the Mumbai Indians' camp as the likes of Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav continue to fail. Ishan has recorded two back-to-back 30-plus knocks but has failed both times to convert good starts into big innings.

Meanwhile, Suryakumar Yadav, the world no.1 T20I batter, is going through a tough run as he was dismissed on a golden duck in the latest game. Suryakumar went for a six on the very first delivery but failed to clear the ropes again. Suryakumar has scored just 16 runs from three innings in IPL 2023 and has recorded four golden ducks from his last six overall innings. The management is unlikely to take big decisions on Suryakumar's form but the player definitely needs to contribute more if Mumbai Indians wish to progress in the points table.

David Warner remains a lone warrior for Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals endured another disappointing game with no positive outcome. Warner scoring big knocks and Prithvi Shaw departing early is the new normal for Delhi Capitals this season and the same was repeated again on Tuesday. Shaw scored just 15 runs against MI to add to the 19 runs he had scored in the first three innings. Delhi Capitals management has been brave to stick with Prithvi Shaw with Phil Salt still warming the bench. 

Warner kept the runs flowing from one end but ran out of partners quickly as Delhi lost the first five wickets before reaching the 100-run mark. Axar joined Warner in the 13th over to add crucial runs but the likes of Yash Dhull, Rovman Powell, and Lalit Yadav contributed just eight runs combined. Thus, fans might witness some big changes to their playing eleven, especially to their batting unit, in their next game against Royal Challengers Bangalore on April 15.

Losing captain, David Warner said

You look at the last three IPL games we have witnessed, they have been amazing. Wrong end of it today, but the guys were fantastic. Rohit played a fantastic knock at the top of the order. Nortje is world-class and that's what we expect from him, Mustafiz too. Timmy David was on the wrong side of it, so I tried to keep it at stump-height. I think from the last three games, we've some positives but we shouldn't lost wickets in clumps. Axar should bat in the top four the way he is striking the ball. From the last three games we have played, there are a lot of positives.

Winning captain & Player of the Match, Rohit Sharma said

Winning the game is the most important. We have been working hard from the first game. We had a camp in Mumbai, getting the result (in our favour) feels good. First win is always special. We played a Test match here recently, the pitch looked different. Getting a slow bowler was important on this pitch. The spinners kept us in the game. We needed to bat well to chase the total. I thought everyone put their hand up. We had to make it count for the team. I needed to make use of the powerplay, I knew we had to keep attacking and take our chances. I tried to create a partnership, had a good communication with Tilak. It was important for us to have a good partnership. We have young guys who haven't played IPL before, so it's important to have faith in them. Give them that confidence, and we are trying to have a healthy atmopshere in the dressing room. Don't need to make drastic changes, that's really important.