Delhi Capitals (DC) captain Axar Patel was fined Rs 12 lakh for maintaining a slow over-rate during his team’s high-scoring IPL 2025 match against the Mumbai Indians (MI) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. Article 2.22 of the IPL Code of Conduct, which sanctions captains for minimum over-rate offenses, was used to impose the fine. The punishment was only the base amount because this was DC's first offence of the season.
"As this was his team’s first offence of the season under Article 2.22 of the IPL’s Code of Conduct, which pertains to minimum over-rate offences, Patel was fined Rs 12 lakhs," the IPL statement read.
This season, captains have been fined for sluggish over-rates, and Axar now joins the likes of Rajat Patidar (RCB), Rishabh Pant (LSG), and Hardik Pandya (MI).
In the high-scoring contest. Mumbai Indians scored a commanding 205/5 thanks to a brilliant innings from Tilak Varma and a fiery finish from Naman Dhir.
With a brilliant 89 off 40 balls, Karun Nair turned back the clock and threatened to pull off a memorable chase, giving the Delhi Capitals enough to cheer about. But a spectacular collapse in the last overs undid the hosts. The tide was turned by Karn Sharma's timely 3-wicket burst and a bizarre hat-trick of run-outs in the penultimate over.
DC lost their unbeaten streak after being bundled out for 193 in 19 overs, falling 12 runs short despite late pyrotechnics from Ashutosh Sharma and Vipraj Nigam. Despite the loss, the Delhi Capitals are still in second place with four victories from five games, while the Mumbai Indians move up to seventh place with two wins in six games.
After the match, Axar Patel was asked by broadcaster Murali Kartik during a post-match interview where'd the match go.
“Disappointment dikh raha hai aapki shakal par. Kahaan gaya match aapke hisab say? (You look disappointed. Where did you think the match go?),” Kartik asked.
Axar, who was smiling, responded, “Mumbai ke pass! (The match went to Mumbai).”
Kartik then asked when exactly the match started to slip away from DC.
“We had the game. I think we had soft dismissals from the middle order, some bad shots. We lost by 12 runs with an over to go, so we could have still won it. It can’t happen that your lower-order batters will always come and save you in chases,” Axar said.
“You can say that. This happens. You can’t expect the lower order batters to bail you out. There are some odd days where you play wrong shots, so I don’t think there’s any point thinking too much about it,” Axar replied when asked if the team panicked during the chase.
Axar believed the target was within reach but noted that better catching from DC could have restricted MI to a smaller total.
“I thought 205 was a great target because it was a good pitch and dew was also coming. Maybe if we had caught better, we’d have kept them to a lower score,” he said.
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