As it happened: Delhi Capitals vs Punjab Kings, DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai

Mitchell Marsh produced a masterful half-century in severely difficult conditions for run-scoring. He was so good in judging when and whom to attack, to the point that this win - which keeps Delhi Capitals in playoff contention - may as well have been built on his restraint as it was on his big hits.

Meanwhile, Punjab Kings, for all of the bravery that Jitesh Sharma (44 off 34) showed in taking it close, have now lost seven of their 13 games and are pretty much out of the tournament. Only a miracle can take them into the final four.

So that was a fun 18th over

Shardul's got 4 for 28 now. Kings need 29 off 12 with just one wicket in hand.

SUPREME EFFORT ON THE LONG-ON BOUNDARY!

Jitesh has got hold of a length ball from Shardul Thakur to start the 18th over. It's flat. It's hard. It's heading to the sightscreen... until Rovman Powell, racing to his left at the speed of light intercepts it.

He has to leap up to rein it in. At first, he goes for the catch, but he knows his momentum is taking him over the ropes, so he just palms the ball down back into the field of play and keeps it to just a single.

So five runs saved, and it also means it's the non-specialist on strike. Rahul Chahar.

He manages to get off strike, but when Jitesh comes back on and tries to loft a knuckle ball over the boundary, he finds David Warner running in from mid-off. End of a really brave innings 44 off 34.

Now imagine if that first ball had gone for six.

Kings' win probability, which was languishing at 5.65% before the start of this Khaleen Ahmed over, the 17th of the innings, is now at a moderately healthier 9.24%

Kings need 51 off 24 with only three wickets remaining.

But Jitesh Sharma is still out there, batting on 43 off 31. He prides himself on his ability to finish games. He says it's a skill that doesn't come to everyone and he says he's got it.

If he can prove it tonight and take Kings home, it won't be just him who's saying he's got it.

Well this is all getting gory very fast.

It felt weird Capitals didn't go to their spinners straight away.

But now that they have, Kings just have no answer. They've crumbled from 53 for 1 to 82 for 7.

At the other end, Axar Patel comes on and bowls the captain Mayank Agarwal. Beautiful stuff. He bowls this ball really well. It seems short, and he's a left-arm spinner, so it'll turn away from the right-hander. So Agarwal goes for the shot, but then finds that the ball is really not all that short, and worse, it keeps coming into him, skidding on, cramping him for room and finally breaching his castle.

Kuldeep Yadav joins the party too. He deceived Livingstone with a wrong 'un when he was early in his innings. Now that's the ball that takes him out.

Having succeeded so well against batters who were desperately trying to hit him out of the park, he commits the same error, charging out at the left-arm wristspinner and missing the googly. Rishabh Pant collects the ball and has it hovering over the stumps, relishing the wicket even before it technically falls. Eventually, off comes the bails triggering the celebrations.

In the space of six balls, Shardul Thakur has broken open the game. On a slow and low pitch, he's got Bhanuka Rajapaksa and Shikhar Dhawan out by cranking up the pace and hitting the deck hard.

Kings had a 70% probability of winning the game at the start of the sixth over. That came down to 62% by the end of it. Here's Liam Livingstone, with the bat.

Anrich Nortje's pace is coming onto the bat beautifully.

Jonny Bairstow was having so much fun. All the way until there was a 152kph bouncer that he tried to hook out of the park but was caught at deep square leg. Was it the longer side of the ground? Maybe.

Kings went all in on spin: 11-0-75-3. Six fours and three sixes.

Capitals are choosing to go the other way.

Khaleel Ahmed and Anrich Nortje open their defence of 159. They've been hit for three fours and a six in three overs.

It shouldn't be long before we're seeing Axar Patel in the attack. Kings 27 for 0

We have a game on our hands.

This is a slow and low pitch. That's why, for the first time in this IPL, Kings bowled more than eight overs of spin. Excellent reading of the conditions from Anil Kumble and co.

Their captain Agarwal, at the toss, said there has been a bit of dew in the evening. If so, it's advantage Kings.

But Capitals do have something to bowl at, and they have a couple of quality spinners too. Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav can do a lot with what's on offer. Marsh did so well to bring them into the game, taking a score that was 112 for 5 up to 159. Now it's up to the bowlers to step up.

Mitchell Marsh was 32 off 26 at the halfway stage.

When a power-hitter of his quality is tied down like that, you know the conditions are not great for run-scoring.

So he decided to play the long game. To bide his time. To wait for the death-overs which often tend to be a bit of a lottery. Edges go for sixes. Bowlers panic and miss their lengths.

He came into the 17th over 47 off 37. At the end of the 18th, he's 63 off 46. These are exactly the wrong conditions for him - slow pitch, low bounce - but he's played it really well. He gambled on being out there till the end and now he's going for the jackpot

He's got another!

Rovman Powell's gone.

Capitals are 112 for 5 and crumbling.

Warner tried to attack him. First-ball duck.

Pant tried to attack him. Stumped for 7.

Powell tried to attack him. Caught at long-off for 2.

Underestimate Livingstone and his all-sorts at your own peril. Because he is a batter. A hitter. One of the best in the game right now. So that gives him insight into where his opponent will want the ball, and therefore he can steer clear of it. Pant's wicket was a prime example of that. Livingstone knew the Capitals captain wanted to launch it, so he angled the offbreak past his reach.

This is his greatest asset. Add to that his control and his variations - he can spin the ball past the outside edge of both right- and left-handers - and he's becomes a proper ace up the captain's sleeve.

Plus, this pitch has like zero pace and zero bounce. Livingstone is preying on that. He's offering nothing to batters who are all hell-bent on destroying him. But when they look for the big shots, the slowness of the pitch and the lack of bounce immediately starts working against them.

Liam Livingstone is having a grand old time out there.

After giving Warner a first-baller, he's foxed one of the best spin-hitters in the business. Rishabh Pant is gone.

Only moments ago, both of them were rofl-ing. Pant had been deceived as he came down the track, but he still managed to one-hand the ball over the straight boundary.

Now, he looks to go again, Livingstone sees it, slants it wider, and gets the benefit of that low-arm action to his offbreaks. The ball doesn't bounce. It sneaks under his bat and Jitesh Sharma behind the stumps is very alert.

Special little spell this from the part-timer. Nope. He's probably become an allrounder in the course of this 2-0-14-2 spell

There are some lol dismissals in cricket. And Lalit Yadav's will fit neatly into that pile.

It's a slower bouncer.

Like a really slower bouncer.

A really really slower bouncer.

Lalit sees it short and is prepped to smack it over the leg side.

But it just never comes to him.

In the end, after like 3000 years, when he does get the chance to hit it, he is looking to ramp it over third man.

But there's no pace. So he just plops the ball to point like he's in catching practice. Capitals 98 for 3 in 11 overs

Mitchell Marsh...

vs Kagiso Rabada 16 off 7, SR 228.57

vs Rishi Dhawan 3 off 5, SR 60
vs Harpreet Brar 3 off 5, SR 60
vs Liam Livingstone 2 off 3, SR 66.66
vs Rahul Chahar 8 off 6, SR 133.33

Clear differential there when there's pace on the ball and when there's not. Capitals 86 for 2 in 10 overs

He's not just a death-overs genius.

With Sarfaraz gaining confidence in the middle - who wouldn't when shots as outrageous as the ones he plays comes off - Punjab Kings go to their banker bowler. (He might be India's banker too, soon enough)

Arshdeep has supreme control over the basics - length and line. That's why he has been one of the most unhittable bowlers in the death this season.

But here he proves that his game is so much more. He can out-think a batter. Even those that are absolutely rampaging.

Charges in at Sarfaraz, rolls the fingers down the side of the ball, the batter miscues his lofted shot down the ground, and the change-up produces a wicket.

It was nearly a double-strike - and a remarkable exhitbition of his skills too - as he bounced out the new man Lalit Yadav.

But there was one teeny, tiny, itty, bitty problem. He'd overstepped. Capitals 59 for 2 in six overs.

Punjab Kings are rigorously taking all the pace off the ball. Two overs from spin. And now Rishi Dhawan's medium pace. It's probably all to combat Mitchell Marsh, who grew up playing on the fastest pitch on the planet, and absolutely loves pace on the ball.

But even so, with the field restrictions in, and Sarfaraz Khan at the other end pulling off those trick shots - scooped Dhawan clean over the keeper's head - Capitals have recovered from their early wicket. They're 45 for 1 after four overs.

So Liam Livingstone, a part-timer, does that. It's been nine years since David Warner's got out for a golden duck in the IPL. And it was against Punjab the last time around too!

And Kaigiso Rabada, one of the bowlers or this generation, gets done like this? Cricket, you are weird. Also, side note, Mitchell Marsh hitting sixes down the ground is #happiness.

Phew! We're right into it! Liam Livingstone, of all people, gets David Warner out first ball!

And to think he wasn't even supposed to be facing.

The Australian saw the part-timer coming on to bowl and decided he wanted a piece of him. A wide offbreak tempts him into a slash through the off side, but the ball bounces over the middle, snags the top edge and lands safely in the hands of point.

Clearly there is such a thing as too much intent. And also irony.

Delhi Capitals: 1 David Warner, 2 Sarfaraz Khan, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 5 Rovman Powell, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Axar Patel, 8 Shardul Thakur, 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Khaleel Ahmed

Punjab Kings: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Mayank Agarwal (capt), 6 Jitesh Sharma (wk), 7 Rishi Dhawan, 8 Harpreet Brar, 9 Kagiso Rabada, 10 Rahul Chahar, 11 Arshdeep Singh

Mayank Agarwal says the wicket won't change much and that there was dew the last time they played at DY Patil so they want the advantage of chasing in those conditions. Same team as their win in the last game. "We've found the right combination."

Pant was looking to bowl as well. Khaleel Ahmed comes back in place of Chetan Sakariya. Sarfaraz Khan comes in for KS Bharat. He adds that even though it has been a disruptive season for them, as captain, he has done all he could to make sure the players have been focused on the cricket and nothing else.

Prithvi Shaw, who is one of the fastest scoring batters in the powerplay this season, has only just recovered from having typhoid. Delhi Capitals will be desperate to have him back at the top of their order, partnering David Warner but is he match-fit? T20 cricket may be get done in three (maybe four) hours but it is still a gruelling contest.

Mayank Agarwal is a fairly similar player, a marauder at the top of the order, with both touch-play and power. He is also a new captain and he's earned a fair bit of praise for it, especially after their last match, a 54-run win over RCB.

No matter how his season goes, the fact that he was willing to sacrifice his spot as opener to a team-mate to help them to better; that he was willing to take on the tougher - and all too unfamiliar - role of coming in down the order knowing he will rarely have the luxury he used to of getting his eye in is worthy of praise. Not many first-time captains would put themselves in a situation where the chance of failure is that high.