Hardik Pandya admitted that Karun Nair put pressure on the Mumbai Indians (MI) bowlers in their IPL 2025 clash against the Delhi Capitals (DC) on Sunday at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Nair scored 89 runs off 40 balls with 12 fours and five sixes, but his knock went in vain as MI beat DC by 12 runs.
After DC were asked to chase down 206, Nair put on 119 runs for the second wicket with Abhishek Porel. In one of the overs, the right-hander took the attack to MI’s premier bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, hitting him for 18 runs. Nair racked up his fifty off 22 balls and was looking good for his hundred before Mitchell Santner dismissed him.
Nair, who made his IPL comeback after three years, scored his first fifty in the tournament since his 26-ball 54 for PBKS against CSK in IPL 2018. Hardik said that MI were running out of options to stop Nair from unleashing his wide range of strokes.
“Winning is always special. Especially in games like this. You have to keep fighting and it means a lot. We were getting out of options of what to bowl at him. The way he took on our bowlers, took his chances, and the way he executed,” Hardik said in the post-match presentation ceremony.
‘Karn Sharma showed a lot of heart’
Hardik also had words of praise for leg-spinner Karn Sharma, who came in as an Impact Player and turned the match on its head. Karn took the wickets of Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs and KL Rahul to finish with figures of 4-0-36-3.
“Fantastic. Coming in and bowling the way he bowled, showed a lot of heart, especially at a small ground like that,” Hardik added.
With the win, Mumbai moved to seventh in the table with four points and a net run rate of +0.104 thanks to wins in two out of six games. MI’s next match is against the Pat Cummins-led Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on April 17 at the Wankhede Stadium.