New Delhi, April 4 Delhi Capitals, with Sameer Rizvi in top form, defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in their first home game of the 2026 IPL season here on Saturday.
Chasing 163, the 22-year-old Rizvi (90 off 51 balls) dominated the MI attack with a fluent innings featuring seven fours and sixes.
After a shaky start, Delhi Capitals recovered with a 66-run partnership for the third wicket between Rizvi and Pathum Nissanka, who scored 44 off 30 balls.
Rizvi then added 78 runs with David Miller (17 not out), completing the chase with 11 balls to spare.
Initially playing second fiddle to Nissanka, Rizvi took control after the Lankan's dismissal, easily hitting the bowlers.
He smashed consecutive fours followed by two towering sixes, including one over deep backward point, to score 20 runs in the 11th over bowled by Corbin Bosch.
He continued the assault in the next over, hitting consecutive sixes off Mayank Markande to gain complete control of the chase.
He missed out on his debut IPL century but received a standing ovation from the crowd when Bosch dismissed him.
This came after Delhi Capitals bowlers restricted Mumbai Indians to a modest 162 for six despite stand-in skipper Suryakumar Yadav's half-century.
Suryakumar anchored the innings with a 36-ball 51, hitting three fours and two sixes, while Rohit Sharma scored 35 even as other MI batters struggled.
Delhi's bowlers, however, kept things tight.
Skipper Axar Patel was exceptional, conceding just 22 runs in his four overs and removing the dangerous Rohit Sharma.
Leg-spinner Vipraj Nigam (1/24 in 3 overs) took a wicket, while Kuldeep Yadav (0/31 in 3 overs) proved slightly expensive.
The pace trio of Mukesh Kumar (2/26), Lungi Ngidi (1/34) and T Natarajan (1/24) also contributed, taking four wickets between them.
Mukesh struck early, removing the in-form Ryan Rickelton with a good-length delivery that was misplayed to Axar at mid-off.
Two balls later, he produced a return catch to dismiss Tilak Varma for a duck, leaving Mumbai Indians two down inside the powerplay.
Rohit (35) and Suryakumar then steadied the innings with a 53-run partnership.
Rohit got going with the first six of the match, dispatching an overpitched ball from Nigam over long-on, while Suryakumar followed up with a maximum off the next delivery.
However, Delhi spinners tightened the screws soon after. Axar accounted for Rohit, who mistimed a shot to the cover region where Nitish Rana completed a fine catch.
Vipraj then dismissed Sherfane Rutherford (5), with Mukesh taking a good catch close to the boundary.
Suryakumar, leading in the absence of Hardik Pandya, tried to accelerate alongside Naman Dhir (28) as Mumbai crossed the 100-run mark. The pair targeted wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, collecting 15 runs in the 15th over, including two sixes.
But just after bringing up his fifty, Suryakumar was trapped leg-before by Ngidi, who cleverly took pace off the delivery.
Death over specialist Natarajan then dismissed Naman as MI continued to lose wickets at regular intervals.