Karun Nair wins Jasprit Bumrah contest, Karn Shamra wins MI DC battle

It was a day of comebacks in IPL 2025. Delhi Capitals returned to the Arun Jaitley Stadium for the first time this season, while IPL veterans Karun Nair and Karn Sharma put on a show in the DC vs MI clash on Sunday. It was eventually the Mumbai Indians who prevailed, condemning Delhi to their first defeat of the season.

Kuldeep storms middle overs

Axar Patel won the toss and put Mumbai Indians into bat on a belter of a wicket in Delhi. Rohit Sharma took Mitchell Starc to the cleaners but soon perished. Ryan Rickelton and Suryakumar Yadav took MI to 59/1 at the end of the power play. The duo stitched an 88-run partnership for the second wicket, with Kuldeep Yadav accounting for the South African with a peach.

Yadav, in partnership with Vipraj Nigam, initiated a slowdown, with Suryakumar Yadav struggling to put the ball away. Surya was eventually dismissed for 40, with Kuldeep again striking. The leg-spinner was on target for the entire game, finishing with figures of 2/23 in his four overs. Hardik Pandya also failed to get going with Nigam cleaning up the Mumbai captain. Tilak Varma and Naman Dhir rebuilt the innings, with the former striking another half-century. The duo’s 62-run partnership took Mumbai past 200, with the visitors setting a target of 206.

Karun, Karn turn back the block

With Faf du Plessis out injured, Delhi Capitals handed Karun Nair his first game of IPL 2025. Nair, who had a stellar domestic campaign, smashed the Mumbai Indians’ attack to all parts of the ground after Jake Fraser-McGurk’s first ball duck. Nair and Abhishek Porel put on a 119-run stand, with Nair scoring at brisk pace. The Vidarbha batter slammed two sixes and a boundary off Bumrah to reach a fifty in his comeback. Such was the impact of his innings, the MI pacer lost his cool, barged into the DC batter and was still having a war of words with him during the strategic timeout.

While the game seemed all done, Mumbai introduced Karn Sharma as their impact sub. The veteran leggie responded to his team’s call, dismissing the set Abhishek Porel for 33. Mitch Santner soon cleaned up Karun Nair, who had earlier taken Jasprit Bumrah to the cleaners. Karn then broke the back of DC’s chase, dismissing Tristan Stubbs and KL Rahul in quick succession. Axar Patel was also dismissed by Jasprit Bumrah as Mumbai found a way back into the contest.

With 39 needed off 18, Vipraj Nigam smashed Mitchell Santner for a 6 and a four to bring the rate down before the Kiwi had the DC batter stumped. With 23 needed in the last two, Ashutosh got two streaky boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah again to bring the equation down. However, in another twist, Ashutosh was run out, with DC still needing 14 to win in 8 balls. Kuldeep Yadav was run out the very next ball as MI tightened its grip on the contest. Mohit Sharma was also run out to make it a hat-trick of run outs as MI clinched a vital 12-run win in Delhi.

It was the Delhi Capitals’ first defeat of IPL 2025. Mumbai Indians, meanwhile, ended their run of defeats, keeping their campaign alive.