Madhav Tiwari turned a quiet second IPL game into a decisive night for Delhi Capitals on May 11, 2026, taking two wickets before finishing unbeaten on 18 off 8 balls in a chase that ended in the 19th over. The 22-year-old Madhya Pradesh all-rounder was named Player of the Match after helping Delhi complete the highest successful T20 chase ever at the HPCA stadium in Dharamsala.
Tiwari first removed Priyansh Arya for 56 and later got rid of Cooper Connolly at a crucial juncture as Punjab Kings posted 210 in match 55. He then stayed calm in the finish, scoring the runs that carried Delhi over the line and kept their tiny qualification hopes alive. It was a sharp return for a player who had featured in only one IPL game last season and was suddenly central to one of Delhi’s biggest wins of 2026.
The chase came in a match shaped entirely by pace. All 39 overs in Dharamsala were bowled by pacers, with no spin used at all, and Yuzvendra Chahal did not bowl because of the seamer-friendly conditions. The altitude and the surface made the ball skid and move, turning the evening into a contest for fast bowlers rather than the spinners usually expected to control the middle overs. The last IPL match with this many overs bowled by pacers came in 2008, when Royal Challengers Bengaluru met Chennai Super Kings.
That context matters because Delhi did not just outbat Punjab Kings; it survived a game that tilted toward seam from the first over. Punjab’s 210 looked imposing, but the home side could not keep control once the pitch and the air at Dharamsala kept rewarding quick bowling. Delhi’s response, finished in 39.4 overs across the innings and completed in the 19th over of the chase, was the sort of pursuit that changes a team’s season in one night.
For Tiwari, the performance matched the confidence he carried into the season. He described himself as both an all-rounder and a batter with equal conviction, saying he would like to say he is a 100 percent bowler and a 100 percent batter. On this evidence, Delhi may have found a player who can decide games from either side of the scoreboard. Punjab Kings, meanwhile, slipped to a fourth consecutive loss, a run that leaves them looking at a collapsing campaign while Delhi clings to the slimmest of openings.
