Axar and Miller drag DC across the line at Dharamsala as Madhav Tiwari marks his IPL 2026 return
Delhi Capitals walked into Dharamsala staring at the wrong end of the points table and walked out with a chase nobody at the HPCA Stadium will forget in a hurry. Axar Patel made 56 off 30 and David Miller answered with 51 off 28 to drag DC back into the IPL 2026 race, and Madhav Tiwari, handed his first game of the season earlier in the evening, was at the non-striker's end when Auqib Nabi pulled the winning runs to seal a three-wicket win with six balls to spare.
The 211 chase looked dead inside the powerplay. Arshdeep Singh ripped through KL Rahul and Sahil Parakh for 2 for 21 from his four overs, Yash Thakur knocked Abishek Porel over, and a sharp Cooper Connolly throw ran Tristan Stubbs out for 12. By the time Axar and Miller came together DC were four down and the chase was a long way from the 211 they needed.
Axar and Miller swing the chase
Axar reached his first fifty of the season off 28 balls and then went one further, finishing Ben Dwarshuis' over with a six that took 15 off it before Marcus Stoinis got him caught for 56. Miller picked up the tempo at the other end, 51 from 28 with a Prabhsimran Singh skier finally ending his innings off Dwarshuis. Miller fell at 170 for 6 in the 16th over, but Ashutosh Sharma's 24 off 10 had already cleared the runway, and Madhav Tiwari's unbeaten 18 off 8 saw the equation through.
Tiwari had already left a mark with the ball. The 22-year-old fast-bowling all-rounder from Madhya Pradesh came in for his first IPL 2026 appearance and walked away with 2 for 40 from his four overs, dismissing Priyansh Arya for 56 and Connolly for 38. DC have been searching all season for a sixth-bowler option that does not leak; here, Tiwari gave them one.
Iyer and Arya set the platform, but it was not enough
Punjab Kings had every right to think 210 for 5 would be defended. Prabhsimran Singh and Arya raced to 78 for the first wicket, with the fifty stand up in 16 balls, and Shreyas Iyer's 83-run third-wicket partnership with Connolly carried PBKS past 150 before Tiwari pulled them back. Iyer finished unbeaten on 59 off 36 and Suryansh Shedge's 21 not out off 8 powered the back end, but Mitchell Starc picked off Marcus Stoinis and Shashank Singh in a 2 for 57 spell to keep DC in touch.
The problem for PBKS is not the night so much as the trend. This is a fourth defeat in a row, and a home win at Dharamsala would have lifted PBKS above RCB to the top of the table. Instead they sit on 13 points in 11 games, parked in fourth. They began IPL 2026 with six wins from their first seven; that cushion has now mostly evaporated, and the chasing pack is right behind.
What it means for the table
DC moved to 10 points from 12 matches and climbed to seventh, with a negative net run rate of 0.993 still the biggest hole between them and a finish in the four. They are not favourites, but they are not done either. PBKS, on 13 from 11, still have three games left to lock their playoff slot and shake the slide off before the league phase ends.
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