Sent in to bat, Tilak Varma smashed a 33-ball 59 to power Mumbai Indians to 205 for 5. Ryan Rickelton (41 off 25), Suryakumar Yadav (40 off 28), and Naman Dhir (38 off 17) also made vital contributions.

Speaking about MI’s batting approach, Pandya said it depends on the situation.

“Amazing. It’s always going to depend on the situation. The more the in-form players try to face the balls and take responsibility.

“Obviously, dew played a factor later. Just making sure the game is not over till it’s over. Keep fighting — that was the chatter in the group and my message to the boys. Wins like this change the momentum and bring everything back.”

Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel blamed “soft dismissals” in the middle order for the loss but didn’t want to dwell too much on the result.

“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.

“There are some odd days where you play wrong shots, so I don’t think there’s any point thinking too much about it. I thought 205 was a great target because it was a good pitch and dew was also coming.”

Axar also pointed to sloppy fielding as a factor that allowed MI to cross the 200-mark, but praised his spin unit.

“Maybe if we had caught better, we’d have kept them t a lower score. I get confidence in bowling all three of our spinners, and two of the three can also bowl in the powerplay,” he said.

“Kuldeep is bowling unbelievably this season. Whenever I need a wicket, I can go to him. I think there were a lot of positives today — we just need to forget about this game.”