Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated Punjab Kings (PBKS) by three wickets in Dharamsala on Monday (May 11) to keep their slim IPL 2026 playoff hopes alive.

Asked to bat first, Priyansh Arya (56 off 33) and Prabhsimran Singh (18) provided PBKS with a flying start, sharing 78 runs off just 41 balls for the opening wicket. Following their departure, Shreyas Iyer (59 off 36) and Cooper Connolly (38 off 27) took responsibility to carry the innings forward as the hosts posted a formidable 210/5 on the board.

In response, DC slipped to 74/4 but skipper Axar Patel (56 off 30) and David Miller (51 off 28) resurrected the chase before Ashutosh Sharma (24 off 10) and Madhav Tiwari (18* off 8) completed the task, finishing on 216/7 in just 19 overs.

Madhav, who also returned with the bowling figures of 2 for 40 in his four overs, earned the Player-of-the-Match accolade.

After receiving the award, Madhav described himself as a "100% bowler, 100% batsman," indicating a high-value all-rounder mindset. Despite not always getting opportunities, he maintains a positive mindset by focusing on improvement during practice sessions.

Madhav credited his performance to working closely with bowling coach Munaf Patel and batting coach Ian Bell.

“First of all, I would like to thank the management for giving me this opportunity, and I’m lucky enough that I was able to be on the winning side here. The mindset is always that if things are not in your hand, you just try to be better in each and every practice session,” Madhav said at the post-match presentation.

“I worked a lot with him, I worked with Munaf (Patel) sir, I worked on my bowling a lot, and I worked on my range-hitting and stuff like that with the batting coach. And it was fun, and I was happy that I was able to contribute for the team. (Are you a batter who can bowl or vice versa?) I would like to say I’m 100% bowler, 100% batsman,” he added.

Talking about his bowling strategy, Madhav Tiwari said he recognized that the pitch favored length balls, and stuck to that strategy early on, mixing in wide and short deliveries.

“I think the wicket was helping the length balls, so I was kind of sticking to that early on in the phase. And I was trying to mix it with the wide balls and short balls in between.

“(If he was surprised by being asked to bowl four overs) No, it was not like that. I was prepared and, given the conditions, it was supporting the fast bowlers. And yeah, he (Axar) told me that if I would have gone for runs on my second over, he would have come and bowled. So yeah, lucky enough, I got to bowl four overs for the team,” he remarked.

Madhav also opened up on Bell’s advice to trust his power, hold his shape, and avoid trying anything too fancy.

“Our batting coach (Ian Bell) just told me, ‘You’ve got the power, you’ve got everything. Just don’t try to do something fancy. Just hold your shape and react to the ball.’ That’s it,” he concluded.