Tilak Verma paid back to Mumbai Indians with 44 runs in IPL 2025 qualifier 2

Better late than never! Tilak Varma was having a Mediocre Indian premier League (IPL) 2025 season. He wasn’t even averaging 30 and his strike rate was below 135. His last 30+ score came on April 13. It’s almost been 2 months since then. The talent left-hander struggled even when he got some runs. Nothing was going in his favour.

No success meant that Mumbai Indians (MI) were changing his batting positions way too often. He batted at number three, four and five. Sometimes he wasn’t even sent. But come the IPL Playoffs, Tilak turned his mojo back on. In the Eliminator against the Gujarat Titans, he was sent at number four and scored an important 25-run knock from just 11 balls.

But that wasn’t all. Tilak had saved his best of the tournament. For a chance to enter the IPL 2025 Final, MI had to beat Punjab Kings in Qualifier 2. In a rain interruption match, batting first was going to a disadvantage. And MI lost Rohit Sharma early, in the 3rd over. Instead of sending Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya chose Tilak to bat at one down.

It was risky plow. The southpaw had batted at 3 before in IPL 2025 but frankly given his returns, it seemed like a big risk. But the punt came off. On his second ball, Tilak scored a six. He was going to take the bowlers on. His job seemed to never let the run flow stop.

He slowed a touch when Jonny Bairstow was firing on all cylinders but knowing that Suryakumar will need a little while to settle in, he went on the aggressive. He attacked the pacers and gave the strike to Suryakumar to tackle Yuzvendra Chahal.