Mumbai Indians break little-known IPL rule against Delhi Capitals, get penalised with no-ball

Mumbai Indians (MI) gave a fantastic performance in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025 clash against the Delhi Capitals (DC) on May 21, Wednesday and went on to secure their spot in the playoffs with a comfortable 59-run triumph at the Wankhede stadium. After getting invited to bat first, the Mumbai-based franchise put up 180 runs on the board and later on, went on to bundle out their opponents for a total of just 121.

Though it was quite a great day for the MI team, there was a moment in the match where their players were left scratching their heads after they were penalised with a no-ball.

MI broke a little-known IPL rule against DC

The reason why the umpires made this decision was due to the fact that MI had just three fielders guarding the off-side in the fifth over while according to the official IPL Match Playing Conditions in section 28.4.1, it is clearly stated that there should be no more than five fielders on the on-side.

This is quite a little-known IPL rule but it turned out to be advantageous for DC as batter Vipraj Nigam smashed Will Jacks for a six on the free hit. However despite this, it was quite a bad day at the office for the Delhi-based franchise who were eliminated from the tournament following the heavy defeat.

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Coming to the match, MI had a sloppy start to the batting and ended up getting restricted to 58/3 at one stage before veteran batter Suryakumar Yadav carried them to a fighting total with his brilliant unbeaten knock of 73. Naman Dhir also played a vital role in MI reaching the 180-run mark with his entertaining cameo of 24 runs from just eight deliveries which included two boundaries and sixes each.

In reply, DC's innings never really got going as Deepak Chahar and Trent Boult ended up dismissing openers Faf du Plessis and KL Rahul respectively within the first three overs. Wickets kept tumbling on regular intervals for the visitors and Jasprit Bumrah, Mitchell Santner's 3-wicket hauls ended up breaking the backbone of their batting order.

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Eventually, DC got bowled out in 18.2 overs, capping off a bittersweet campaign which saw them dominate in their first few games, however end up capitulating in the latter part. Four losses in the last five games sealed their fate as they got knocked out of the tournament in highly disappointing fashion.