Rahul and Kumar power Delhi to big victory over Lucknow

India’s KL Rahul hit an unbeaten 57 to steer Delhi Capitals to an emphatic eight-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants and get his side back to winning ways in the IPL on Tuesday.

Chasing a modest 160 for victory, Delhi rode on Rahul’s 42-ball knock and a second-wicket partnership with Abishek Porel, who hit 51, to achieve their target with 13 balls to spare at Lucknow’s home ground.

Delhi, with six wins in eight matches, bounced back from their previous defeat to table-toppers Gujarat Titans and are second in the 10-team table.

Seam bowler Mukesh Kumar set up victory with his four wickets as he helped pull Lucknow back from 87-0 to 110-4 and then a below-par total of 159-6.

“Once we picked up two quick wickets, we got the momentum and all the bowlers did well to restrict them under 160,” Delhi skipper Axar Patel said.

In reply, Delhi lost Karun Nair for 15 bowled by Aiden Markram, a part-time off spinner, but Porel and Rahul combined to get the chase on track in their stand of 69.

Markram struck again to get the left-handed Porel out after his 36-ball knock, which was laced with five fours and one six.

Rahul stood firm and along with Axar, who made 34, put on an unbeaten stand of 56 to steer the team home with a winning six from Rahul.

Rahul hit his third fifty of the season to go past 5,000 runs in the IPL — making him the quickest player to achieve the feat in the T20 tournament.

Rahul reached the elusive milestone in 130 innings and beat the likes of David Warner (135), Virat Kohli (157), AB de Villiers (161) and Shikhar Dhawan (168) in the list.

Rahul has been a man in form for Delhi this season and has certainly lived up to the occasion. His strike rate of 155.67 this season is the second-highest of his 12-season tenure in the league.

Earlier, openers Markram (52) and Mitchell Marsh (45) combined the right dose of caution and aggression to steer Lucknow to 87 inside 10 overs.

South African batter Markram raised his fifty and alongside Australia’s Marsh forced Delhi to rotate their bowling options.

Sri Lanka pace bowler Dushmantha Chameera struck first to send back Markram caught out, and the wicket triggered a mini collapse.

Australia’s left-arm quick Mitchell Starc got the big wicket of West indies left-hander Nicholas Pooran, bowled for nine.

Mukesh then got two wickets in one over, including Marsh, and Lucknow wobbled.

Lucknow subbed out Marsh and got Ayush Badoni as the impact player, and the 25-year-old repaid the decision by regularly finding the boundary.

Badoni made the most of a dropped catch by Tristan Stubbs on three to smash 36 off 21 deliveries. Badoni hammered Mukesh for three successive boundaries in the 20th over but the bowler bowled him on the fourth ball.

Skipper Rishabh Pant dropped himself down to number seven but faced just two balls before being bowled by Mukesh on the final delivery of the innings.

“We knew we were 20 runs short,” said Pant. “In Lucknow, the toss plays a big part. Whoever is bowling first, they get a lot of help from the wicket. We just had to stay back, we just couldn’t get it away.”

Pant also claimed that the toss plays a huge role at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium.

“It always happens in Lucknow, in the second innings, the wicket gets better, and the batter bats on; that’s how the game goes, and you can’t complain. Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses,” he added.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Pant, who went to Lucknow for a record bid of $3.21 million in the November auction, has not been his usual self in this edition of the tournament with just 106 runs from nine matches at a strike rate of only 96.36.

Agencies

Brief scores:

Lucknow Super Giants 159/6 in 20 overs (Aiden Markram 52, Mitchell Marsh 45; Mukesh Kumar 4-33) lost to Delhi Capitals 161/2 in 17.5 overs (KL Rahul 57*, Abhishek Porel 51, Axar Patel 34*; Aiden Markram 2-30) by eight wickets.