Delhi Capitals’ stand-in captain Faf du Plessis backed his side following their disappointing defeat against the hosts, Mumbai Indians as well. Jasprit Bumrah and Mitchell Santner’s three-wicket haul bowled DC out for 121 runs as MI registered a 59-run victory at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday as well. With this win, Mumbai Indians became the fourth and final team to qualify for the IPL 2025 playoffs as well.
Speaking on the team’s performance at the post-match presentation, Faf du Plessis said, “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.”
Moreover, the veteran batter also applauded young uncapped Indian batter Sameer Rizvi’s mindset during the run chase, where he scored 39 runs with 6 fours and a six on a difficult wicket where many players failed to score runs as well.
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“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,” he further added.
Meanwhile, Faf du Plessis further added that the team missed the services of regular captain Axar Patel (ill) and pace bowler Mitchell Starc (opted out) in the match against the Mumbai Indians.
“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,” Faf du Plessis concluded.
