Delhi Capitals (DC) were knocked out of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 with a five-wicket defeat at the hands of Mumbai Indians (MI) on Saturday (May 21).

Chasing 160 to win, MI were in a spot of bother at 95/3 in the 15th over when Tim David joined Tilak Varma in the middle.

David got a reprieve on the very first delivery as Rishabh Pant didn’t take a review for the caught behind. After the lifeline, he took the DC attack to the cleaners, smashing 34 off 11 balls (2 fours and 4 sixes) to put Mumbai on the brink of victory.

Tim David may have got out in the 18th over but he had done his job by then. Tilak played the role of second fiddle to perfection, scoring 21 off 17 balls while Ramandeep Singh stayed unbeaten on 6-ball 13 to take MI over the line with five deliveries to spare.

After the game, DC skipper Rishabh Pant revealed the reason behind not using the DRS against Tim David, saying everyone standing in the circle wasn't convinced.

"I thought there was something (about not reviewing Tim David caught behind). Everyone standing in the circle wasn't convinced and at the end I didn't go up," Pant said in the post-match presentation.

It was a must-win game for Delhi Capitals to book a place in the playoffs but they failed to rise to the occasion. The Rishabh Pant-led side finished the league stage at fifth spot with 7 wins from 14 matches.

Reflecting on DC’s campaign, Pant said, "For most of the game we were on top. On occasions, we let the game slip away from our grabs when we were on top. That's what we were doing throughout the season. Not good enough to win this match I guess.

"It's not about pressure. We could have done better execution and planning. Learn from mistakes and come back stronger next year. We were 5-7 runs short but we bowled really well. We bowled well throughout the tournament, but dew came in towards the end and we didn't bowl to our plans. It's hard but we got to take it on our chin and learn from it," he explained.

(With India Today inputs)