The aggression at the Indian Premier League has permeated to the stands as a physical fight broke out at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday during the match between Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians.
On a video widely circulated on social media, a woman and man are seen exchanging blows as onlookers stepped in to diffuse the situation. While the reason for the fight is yet unknown, the matter seemed to have died down quickly thanks to the interference from fellow cricket fans. Watch the altercation here:
DC vs MI IPL 2025
The fans in the national capital were treated to a run fest as the away side came out on top, by 12 runs, in a closely contested match. The home side won the toss and put MI into bat first as the visitors put up a competitive total of 205/5 in their 20 overs. Tilak Varma top scored for the 5-time IPL champions with a good half century (59 of 33). He was ably supported by Ryan Rickelton, who scored 41 of 25, Suryakumar Yadav (40 of 28), and Naman Dhir (38 of 17).
In response, the home side made the worst start possible as opener Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed for a first ball duck. Abhishek Porel and Karun Nair steadied the ship as DC were on course to winning the match.
Nair, who is playing his first IPL match in over 3 years, came in at number 3 as an Impact Sub and he made a devastating impact. He smashed 89 of just 40 balls and took MI’s best bowler, Jasprit Bumrah, to the cleaners.
Nair vs Bumrah
Nair’s gameplan was to attack the opposition’s best bowler and it worked like a charm. In Bumrah’s opening over, the right handed batsman sent two balls to the boundaries before saving his best shots for the sixth over, the last over powerplay.
He started the sixth over with a beautiful pick up shot, to over deep backward square leg, as he sent the ball way into the stands for a huge six. He then sliced Bumrah’s yorker to the boundary before hitting an inside-out six on the offside to end the powerplay in commanding fashion.
Nair hit him for 26 runs in 9 balls and Bumrah seemed to have lost his head. While Nair completed a double to reach his half century, he accidentally bumped into Bumrah, prompting an angry reaction from the MI pacer.
The visiting side did have the last laugh as DC lost their way after Nair’s dismissal to Mitchell Santner in the 12th over, at which point they needed only 71 runs from 50 balls; a very obtainable target.
Best in the world
Despite sharing some fierce words on the field, Nair was magnanimous in his praise for Bumrah as he reflected on his game plan on taking on the best bowler in the world.
In the post-match press conference, Nair said, “Obviously I was confident. I was playing, I was in the flow and I didn’t want to stop the flow.”
“It was about picking the right balls and playing to the areas that I wanted to play. He’s the best bowler in world cricket, so I had to be very watchful of where he’s going to bowl. I just backed myself,” he added.
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