Tilak Varma once again showed his class in the Indian Premier League on May 14. Playing on a tricky Dharamsala pitch against a desperate Punjab Kings side, a calm Tilak Varma sparked an otherwise chaotic 201-run chase for Mumbai Indians on Thursday.
An unbeaten 75 off just 33 balls is bettered by perhaps only one other knock that Varma has played this season. Against Gujarat Titans earlier in the campaign, Tilak scored a scintillating 45-ball 101 not out that helped Mumbai end their IPL half-way losing streak.
That hundred followed a similar pattern to Thursday’s knock in Dharamsala. Against Gujarat on April 20 and now against Punjab, Tilak went on a rampage right after the second strategic time-out. Against Gujarat, Tilak was struggling on 19 balls off 22 when timeout came after the 14th over.
On a tacky pitch, Tilak took a breather, reassessed the conditions and then unleashed an absolute onslaught against Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Ashok Sharma. This innings, his first IPL hundred, helped Mumbai post a target of 200 runs, which Gujarat eventually failed to chase down.
PBKS vs MI: HIGHLIGHTS | SCORECARD
The innings against the Punjab Kings unfolded in much the same way. The pitch in Dharamsala on Thursday was challenging and showed variable bounce throughout the evening. Hidden cracks beneath the surface meant that some deliveries were bending awkwardly and throwing themselves at batters.
With wickets falling around him, Tilak was forced to sit back and absorb the pressure, waiting for his moment against a Punjab side desperate to end a four-match losing streak.
And that moment came right after the second strategic timeout.
Yuzvendra Chahal, who had been bowling superbly till then with figures of 3-0-12-1, was greeted with one of the biggest sixes of IPL 2026 – a monster hit of 106 metres.
The ball was hit so cleanly that it sailed beyond the stadium and landed on a narrow road bordering a picturesque hillside location.
“When we had the second strategic timeout, I talked to the coach that one big end is enough and we will finish the game. I told him, ‘Just trust me, I will do it for the team,'” Tilak said after the game.
“I was just waiting for the big ending. Unfortunately it came from Yuzi bhai’s end,” he added with a smile.
THE DIFFERENCE IS IN THE AIR
As IPL pitches gradually slow down towards the end of the tournament, chasing teams find it harder to establish dominance. Just ask SunRisers Hyderabad who completely fell apart against Gujarat last night chasing a modest target.
With 50 needed in the last three overs, Punjab were still favorites to win. The Dharamsala surface was not easy to bat on and Mumbai were without Hardik Pandya and Suryakumar Yadav.
And perhaps this was where the awareness of Tilak Varma’s play made a difference. A talent identified by Mumbai Indians as early as 2022.
Faced with a steep equation, Tilak came up with a simple but effective plan. Don’t take unnecessary risks against slower deliveries. But if the ball has come at a regular pace, throw the bat at it. Even a fool had a chance to clear the ropes in the thin air of Dharamsala.
“I just told him: keep your shape and wait for the slower ones because the ball is flying here. If they bowl fast and you swing blindly, if it just hits the bat, then it goes. So he kept his shape well, got a couple of sixes and they were under pressure,” explained Tilak after the match.
This ingenious plan helped Mumbai collect 22 runs from Marc Jansen, 13 off Arshdeep Singh in the final over and then 19 off the last five balls by Xavier Bartlett.
Tilak finished unbeaten on 75 from 33 balls, smashing six sixes and six boundaries. Alongside him, Will Jacks played a perfect supporting combination with an unbeaten 25 off 10 balls.
“Credit to Tilak for holding his nerve, spending time in the middle and looking to bowl all 20 overs. He was picking the balls and the areas he needed to hit,” Shardul Thakur said at the post-match press conference.
CRISIS MAN ATTACKS AGAIN
And in many ways Tilak was brought to Bombay to play exactly that role.
Mumbai has been following Tilak since he was 19 days old. They beat Chennai Super Kings in the 2022 auction and signed him for Rs 1.7 million. In many ways, Tilak grew up around Mumbai, around players like Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah, players considered to be some of the best mentors in the Indian cricket system.
“Mumbai Indians is a very big franchise and my favorite franchise,” Tilak said back in 2022. “They worked with me on my overs and bowling. They boosted my confidence by asking me to play freely.”
In his first season in Mumbai, Tilak has already shown signs of his temperament with a series of gutsy innings. Even then, he looked comfortable against both spin and pace and rarely seemed rattled under pressure.
In four seasons with Mumbai, Tilak never scored less than 300 runs in an IPL season, nor did his strike tally fall below 130.
In 2026, despite a weak campaign in Mumbai, this lull seems to have increased. Tilak was able to suppress the external noise and concentrate directly on the field.
Mumbai may not only have a long-term batting mainstay in him, but potentially a future captaincy candidate as well. The BCCI seemed to back that belief when it announced him as the captain of the India A team just before Thursday’s match.
Even off the field, Tilak has found himself drawn into social media chatter this season, most recently after Arshdeep Singh’s controversial video sparked an online debate. Still, the left-hander remained remarkably composed at the crease thanks to the noise.
As the pitches continue to slow down and controversies pile up at the end of the IPL, Mumbai know they have a class act in Tilak Varma and will be hoping he doesn’t let him down in this transitional period.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
15 May 2026 05:25 IST
