Delhi Capitals’ David Miller and Kuldeep Yadav after losing by one run vs Gujarat Titans. (Pic credit: IPL)

NEW DELHI: ‘What was he thinking?’. ‘What was he doing?’. ‘Why didn’t he run?’ These were some of the questions that did the rounds in the aftermath of Delhi Capitals’ one-run loss against Gujarat Titans in the ongoing IPL 2026.The ‘he’ in question is David Miller. The South African batter had a whirlwind experience at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!First, while fielding, he picked up an injury on his right hand when he made a dive on the practice pitches to stop a Sai Sudharsan cover drive.Having tried to brush that off, he came to bat but the effects of it became far too clear just 10 balls into the 211-run chase. The blow had already been further exacerbated when he dived to make the crease.At that juncture, DC were 130/3 and needed 81 from 42 balls with KL Rahul well set on 69 from 37 balls. When Miller re-appeared, DC had just lost Tristan Stubbs to a run out and the equation on the scoreboard read: 51 needed from 20 balls. Three balls later, Rahul went for a well-outside-off-ball from Mohammed Siraj and the inside edge was lapped easily by keeper Jos Buttler.The onus and weight of responsibility had suddenly shifted towards the tattered and bruised 36-year-old Miller.He added only 6 from 3 balls upon resumption of his innings as the required rate ballooned to 18.00. And that is where the game turned.Miller hit 6, 4 and 6 off Mohammed Siraj, with the pacer conceding 23 runs in the penultimate over to bring the equation closer. It helped further that GT were penalised for a slow over rate, forcing an extra fielder back into the circle.13 needed from 6 became 8 from 3 balls when Miller got his chance in the final over. Next ball, Prasidh Krishna came around the wicket, bowled into the arc and was duly punished with the resultant six landing in the third tier of the stadium. A massive 106 metre hit!Then came the moment which baffled everyone and will be discussed for weeks at end. A pull shot went towards deep square leg and Miller refused a single with DC needing 2 from 2 balls. Had they completed that safe run, Kuldeep Yadav would have been asked to finish things off or at the very least force a Super Over.Instead, as Prasidh bowled a smart last ball under pressure, DC were unable to add to their tally and were instead caught one run short.Finisher without the finishA few days ago, as Punjab Kings chased down 210 runs against Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk, CSK head coach Stephen Fleming claimed there is no room for finishers in T20 anymore.“Look, I don’t think there is a thing called finishers anymore. It’s right from ball one, everyone is going at a rate of knocks. It’s not ‘build up to the 16th over and then go harder’. Everyone’s going hard from ball one. So the run rates of 10, 11, 12 all the way through are what’s expected and you’re not really getting the big peaks towards the end,” he said.The DC chase, albeit unsuccessful, disproved that theory. If Delhi Capitals were scoring at 10.5 runs an over in the powerplay and 8.77 in the middle, they upped the ante to 13.40 in the final five overs. The 16th over went for 16 runs and Siraj’s 19th produced 23 runs – the joint-highest of the night.Back to the question on Miller’s decision to not run and no one had a fitting answer. Gill believed they had a “chance to win.” DC skipper Axar Patel said things could have gone either way. “I think, this type of close game, you can, you know, point out anything. So I think, yes, we played very good cricket. As I said earlier, in a close chase, in a close game, you can point out a lot of things. But I think in the chase, I think we could have played smarter,” said Axar.DC opener Pathum Nissanka didn’t divulge much when he said, “We haven’t discussed it yet, but sometimes it happens in cricket,” in the post match press conference. Rashid Khan, the Player of the Match, was quite pleased that he wasn’t in Miller’s shoes at that moment.What was going through Miller’s head can only be best explained by him. One can only hazard a guess from the outside. But on the inside, DC would rue this golden opportunity lost.

Shubman Gill and Axar Patel (Pic credit: IPL)

NEW DELHI: There seems to be a spring in every step Delhi Capitals are taking this season. Yes, it might be only two games so far, but with two comprehensive victories, Capitals give the impression of finally translating their potential into performance and look capable of being a team that can go the distance. The Axar Patel-led team will be eager to build on its impressive start and complete a hat-trick of victories when they face a winless Gujarat Titans on their home turf here at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday night.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!The good news for Titans is that their regular skipper Shubman Gill is fit and available to play after missing out the last game against Rajasthan Royals due to muscle spasms. Though ‘Impact Player’ Sameer Rizvi hogged the headlines with two scintillating half-centuries, it’s the performance of the bowlers that set up the twin wins for the Capitals. Their bowling unit appears to be a well-rounded one, with the pace triumvirate of Lungi Ngidi, Mukesh Kumar and T Natarajan making up for the absence of Australian speedster Mitchell Starc. Mukesh seems to have learnt quickly from his seam-bowling partner Ngidi, adopting similarly clever deceptions of pace and length which helped him peg Mumbai Indians back in the previous tie and return with impressive figures of 2/26.“If you manage to get two or three wickets in the Powerplay for around 40 runs, it will be difficult to score over 200 unless you bowl badly at the death. That’s what we have been able to do so far. The presence of Lungi Ngidi has also helped. He has variations and a good slower ball. He is putting the experience of playing in Indian conditions during the World Cup recently to good use. He also provides useful tips to his fellow pacers,” said Capitals bowling coach Munaf Patel.

Skipper Axar has not been afraid to bring himself on or use leg-spinning allrounder Vipraj Nigam in the Powerplay. The dexterity of left-arm wrist-spin bowler Kuldeep Yadav has helped the Capitals maintain pressure on their rivals even in the middle overs. The only tinge of worry for the Capitals would be the cheap returns of their top-order batters KL Rahul and Nitish Rana in the first two matches. Rahul, with scores of 0 and 1 and Rana, with 15 and 0, will be keen to repay the faith shown in them by the team management, who have offered them their favoured batting slots.The Titans will be smarting from the defeat against Rajasthan Royals in the previous encounter as they choked during the run chase. Their bowling attack, comprising Mohammed Siraj, Kagiso Rabada, Ashok Sharma, Prasidh Krishna and experienced spinner Rashid Khan looks intimidating on paper but has been guilty of leaking runs.For Titans to come out of their slump, it is imperative that the batting clicks in unison. Hopefully, Gill will be out there leading them from the front.NUMBER GAMES

—Stats: Rajesh Kumar

Delhi Capitals’ Sameer Rizvi celebrates his fifty (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

NEW DELHI: “Tayyar rahio, ek challenge aane wala hai”That was Axar Patel’s message to Sameer Rizvi ahead of IPL 2026. What Rizvi did not know then was how quickly that challenge would arrive—or how decisively he would stamp his authority on it.When it did, the 22-year-old delivered a statement.Chasing 142 against Lucknow Super Giants, Rizvi walked in at No. 4 and produced a composed, unbeaten 70 off 47 balls, guiding Delhi Capitals to a six-wicket win. He walked into a ring of fire, with his UP teammate Mohsin Khan and the rest of the LSG pace battery making life difficult for the batters. But Rizvi weathered the early storm before settling into his comfort zone and accelerating with control.‘No. 4 is his favourite position’Rizvi’s comfort at the position comes as no surprise. He entered IPL 2026 on the back of consistent domestic form—491 runs in the UP T20 League, where he primarily batted at No. 4.“I am comfortable batting at No 4. I wanted to bat at the spot and the coach had told me earlier that I would come in at No 4 and that they would back me,” he said. “He asked me to play my natural game and stay positive,” Rizvi had told reporters after the game.Axar’s reminder ahead of DC’s season opener was a validation of the trust the management had placed in him.As per his uncle and formative coach, Tankeeb Akhtar, Rizvi relishes batting at No. 4, with time in the middle being key to his game.“Tujhe 4 pe batting karni hai. Tayyar rehna [You have to bat at No. 4. Be ready]. That’s what Axar Patel told him,” Akhtar tells Timesofindia.com. “He was very happy. No. 4 is his favourite batting position. When he called me, he was extremely happy and said, ‘That was amazing, mamu’]”.

Sameer Rizvi with his uncle and formative coach,Tankeeb Akhtar

“Even last year, in the final match, he played a fine knock—scoring 58 runs to help Delhi win. That’s where it all started for him. Against LSG too, he played a very good knock. The only change was that he needed time at the crease, and Axar gave him that time yesterday. Once he got time to settle on the wicket, he batted really well. He was happy,” he added.’Mamu, you’ll see – I will play well this time’Rizvi was the second-highest run-getter in the UP T20 League, averaging 61.38 and striking at 161.51. He continued his rich vein of form in the Vijay Hazare Trophy, scoring 238 runs at an average of 59.50.Back home in Meerut, his preparation for IPL 2026 was intense and methodical.“When he is in Meerut, he bats for three hours on the centre wicket. Medium pacers, spinners, fast bowlers—everyone was used to prepare him for the IPL. He has worked extremely hard for this season. I am sure he will continue to play match-winning knocks this season. While leaving, he just said, ‘Mamu, you’ll see – I will play well this time’,” says Akhtar.‘8 crore ho ya 20 lakh – cricket khelna hai bass’Rizvi’s IPL journey has already seen sharp turns. Picked by Chennai Super Kings for Rs 8.40 crore in 2024, he struggled to convert his opportunities and managed just 51 runs in eight matches.He was released the following season – a move that raised eyebrows and brought with it an inevitable dip in valuation. Delhi Capitals picked him up for Rs 95 lakh. That massive drop in price could have easily unsettled the youngster, but as Akhtar says, for Rizvi, it was always about playing the game, not the price tag attached to it.“Dekhiye bura bahot lagta hai but Sameer ne kabhi dikhaya nahi wo apne shakal pe [Look, it does hurt a lot, but Sameer never showed it on his face]. Cricket comes first for him. He never talks about the price tag. He used to say whether it is Rs 8 crore or a Rs 20 lakh base price, he just wants to play cricket, no matter which IPL team it is,” says Akhtar.In 2025, after starting in the playing XI for the initial matches, Rizvi lost his place to the likes of Abhishek Porel and Ashutosh Sharma, and eventually managed just five games the whole season – scoring 121 runs at 40.33 and striking at 153.16, including a fifty in DC’s final game.Making an Impact This year, though, as an impact substitute, Rizvi has made his mark with a match-winning knock in the first game itself. He will now hope for a consistent run – something Akhtar also believes is within reach.“Mauka bahut kam mila tha usko CSK mein [He didn’t get many opportunities at CSK]. Even in the IPL now, this was only his second or third chance, and he played a very good innings,” says Akhtar, adding that the CSK stint did help Rizvi evolve as a cricketer. “He learned a lot from MS Dhoni – both his approach to the game and his thinking evolved. But when Dhoni stepped down as captain, everything changed. I had even asked him about opportunities or moving up the batting order. He said the captain is different now. He just didn’t get enough chances, that’s all,” remembers Akhtar.At DC, Rizvi seems to have found the ideal support system – a captain who trusts him and a senior pro he can lean on.“Axar has supported him a lot. He treats him like an elder brother. He also spends time with KL Rahul. He has told him one thing: ‘Be focused on your goal,’” says Akhtar about the DC setup.From a quiet heads-up before the season to taking on the challenge head-on, Rizvi has shown early signs that he could seize his moment in his third IPL year.

Rishabh Pant dismissal in LSG vs DC (Screengrabs)

NEW DELHI: Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant endured a frustrating start to his opening experiment as Lucknow Super Giants took on Delhi Capitals in their first IPL 2026 clash on Wednesday, with a bizarre run-out cutting short his innings.The incident unfolded in the third over when Mukesh Kumar delivered a full ball that Mitchell Marsh struck firmly back towards the bowler. Mukesh got a fingertip to the ball in his follow-through, inadvertently deflecting it onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end.