Mumbai Indians won their first match of the Indian Premier League season after beating fellow strugglers Delhi Capitals in a last-ball thriller.

With two runs needed off the final ball, Tim David and Cameron Green got the job done for the five-time champions as they chased down 173-run target with six wickets in hand.

MI got their chase off to a strong start with captain Rohit Sharma and Ishan Kishan scoring 70 runs in the powerplay. After Kishan was run out for 31, Sharma was joined by Tilak Verma and the pair added 68 runs to put Mumbai in a commanding position.

Rohit Sharma shines as MI edge past DC in a thriller for first win of the season

Speaking after the match, a happy MI skipper said he was relieved to have finally ended their losing streak – the team lost their first two matches this season.

“Obviously, winning the game is the most important thing and it’s a great feeling to cross the line. We’ve been working really, really hard and we had camps in Mumbai a couple of weeks before the tournament. To get the result feels really good and we’re going to cherish this,” he said.

Sharma’s 45-ball 65 propelled MI to victory with the captain being given the Player of the Match award for his innings.

“We recently played a Test match here and this pitch didn’t look different to that and looked dry,” he said of the Arun Jaitley Stadium pitch.

“I thought it was important to get the slower bowlers into the game quickly. We thought 173 was chaseable, and everyone put their hand up. When I went to bat, I wanted to make full use of the powerplay because as the game went on, I thought it would be tough with the couple of quality spinners they had,” he said.

Sharma praised Verma for his 29-ball 41 which put MI in a good position. The 20-year-old has been MI’s most consistent batter since last season and on Tuesday showed his quality in the middle once again.

“We tried to create a partnership and good to see Tilak bat with that intent as well. We always knew it would be tough for the new batter to come and bat. (We have) got a lot of young guys and it’s all about giving them confidence and trust in their ability. We want to have a healthy atmosphere and we don’t want to make drastic changes based on results,” he added.

Mumbai Indians will next host Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday while DC will play RCB on Saturday.