Lokesh Rahul anchored Delhi Capitals to an emphatic eight-wicket win over his former franchise Lucknow Super Giants and reached the 5,000-run mark in Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
Rahul made an unbeaten 57 off 42 balls with three fours and three sixes as Delhi romped to 161-2 in 17.5 overs and joined Gujarat Titans atop the points table with 12 points from six wins.
Opener Abishek Porel made 51 off 36 balls in Delhi’s aggressive run-chase as off-spinner Aiden Markram claimed both wickets for 30 runs.
Earlier, Lucknow couldn’t capitalize on Markram (52) and Mitchell Marsh’s (45) 87-run opening stand off 60 balls and was restricted to 159-6 with fast bowler Mukesh Kumar returning with impressive figures of 4-33.
With five wins and four defeats Lucknow is at No. 5 on the table.
Rahul controls the chase
Rahul was unavailable when Delhi recorded a thrilling one-wicket win over Lucknow earlier this season, but he controlled the chase well with captain Axar Patel in his first game since parting ways with his former franchise.
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Rahul became the quickest batter to complete 5,000 runs in the IPL as he reached the landmark in 130 innings. David Warner held the previous record of completing the milestone in 135 innings.
After losing Karun Nair to Markram in the fourth over of the run-chase, Rahul revived the chase with Porel. They countercharged against leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi as Porel raised his first half-century of the season off 33 balls.
With 55 needed off the 49 balls, Patel smashed four sixes in his unbeaten 34 off 20 balls and Rahul completed his half-century off 40 balls to guide Delhi home.
Kumar derails Lucknow
Markram and Mitchell had provided Lucknow a solid platform in the first half of the innings despite Patel (0-29) bowling four steady overs of his left-arm spin on the trot with the new ball.
"In the powerplay we didn’t take a wicket but we kept it under control,” Patel said. “I had an injury issue earlier that hampered my bowling, (but) now I’m better and I took on the responsibility of bowling in the powerplay.”
Markram was more aggressive than Mitchell, hitting three sixes and two boundaries, before Dushmanta Chameera of Sri Lanka, playing his first game of the season, had him caught in the deep in the 10th over.
Kumar clean bowled Marsh with a superb yorker and also removed Abdul Samad, who struggled to keep the momentum going and fell for 2. Lucknow’s in-form batter Nicholas Pooran was undone by Mitchell Starc’s slow short ball and was bowled for nine.
Kumar then returned for the final over and clean bowled Ayush Badoni (36), and captain Rishabh Pant’s below-par season continued when he was out for duck as he dragged the ball back onto his stumps while going for a reverse lap shot against the fast bowler.
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Pant surprisingly demoted himself until the fifth wicket fell with two balls left in the innings. The left-hander missed the first ball he faced from Kumar before he got dismissed in a bizarre fashion.
“We were 20 runs short,” Pant said. “Whoever is bowling first gets a lot of help from the wicket … it always happens in Lucknow, wicket becomes better in the second innings.”