His innings, which included six fours and as many sixes, helped Delhi chase down Mumbai Indians’ 194-7 on Saturday at the Wankhede. The seven-wicket win was their first of the 2018 edition.

Yadav, who was promoted to open the innings with Lewis, top-scored with a 32-ball 53, putting to use his experience of playing domestic cricket at the Wankhede.

“I said I don’t mind opening the innings because I have played most of my cricket here and I know how the wicket behaves with the new ball, so I said let’s take the responsibility and go ahead,” said Yadav, who is second on the 2018 IPL run-scoring charts at the time of writing with 124 runs from three matches. “I have always enjoyed batting higher up the order in this format because you get that extra time to go out there and express yourself.”