Two bizarre tailspins later, once posting 264 and then crumbling to 75, Delhi Capitals resuscitated their drowning season with an emphatic victory over Rajasthan Royals. Openers KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka, with their 110-run stand, were the chief architects. The finishing act of Ashutosh Sharma and Tristan Stubbs, chomping on the toothless Royals’ bowling attack, for 49 runs from 24 balls, was equally significant in their successful pursuit of 226.
The biggest gift of Rahul is his biggest curse too. His game is risk-free, percentage-shots reliant, dictated by orthodoxies; his game is largely muscle-free. So much so that he is horribly misconstrued as an oddball opener in the era of unabashed hitters. But this season, he has been rollicking at a strike rate of 185.83. Add the average of 54.12, and he becomes a fearsome proposition.
Resolved by failures and steeled by experience, he stripped the chase to its nuts and bolts and devised the ideal method. When his partner Pathum Nissanka went berserk, he calmly played the supporting role (though when gift-beckoned, he took full toll). When Nissanka got tired, Rahul punched to keep the moment alive. When the Sri Lankan exited, he took the chase by the scruff of its neck, ensuring that his side, prone to implosions, didn’t freeze.
Any knock of Rahul is replete with splendrous stroke-play, those that don’t look out of place in any format. Like the pulled six of Jofra Archer in the third over, or the on-the-rise, on-his-toes cover drive off Nande Burger. It’s a folly Royals’ seamers committed against both openers, as both are merciless square off the wicket. If seamers fail to dislodge him early in the piece, he makes teams pay with his expertise in demolishing spinners. So he did, thumping Bishnoi for three sixes and a four, in his 40-ball 75.
Rumbling Nissanka
Three scores of 40s and three low scores later, the IPL world smelled the frictionless daring of Nissanka, a throwback to Sri Lanka’s exuberant days. The distant days when their cricketing coffers brimmed with stroke-makers with a charming smile and a gleaming array of strokes. Blow by blow, he punctured the Royals’ hopes of topping the league.
Pathum Nissanka of Delhi Capitals play a shot during Match 43 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026. (Photo by Arjun Singh / CREIMAS for IPL)
He filed the early portents. He swirled his rubbery wrists over an Archer scorcher into his legs over fine leg. It was an insouciant stroke that induced fear among Royals that 225 might not be defensible.
Archer skinned, he crushed him four a pair of sixes, he relished the hard length balls of left-arm seamer Burger, who he carved for a brace of sixes. By the fourth over, Capitals had already bristled to 49. In the last ball of the sixth over, he swivel-pulled Brijesh Sharma for a four to complete a half-century, off his 23rd ball, taking the team score to 70. By the time he perished for 62 (33 balls), the chase was set up.
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His ejection did spoil the momentum. Rahul rampaged with Nitish Rana. When both floundered, Ashutosh and Stubbs steered them home.
Parag’s redemption party
The world was falling apart for Riyan Parag. The Rajasthan Royals captain was as much out of depth as out of touch, his discretion and judgement as captain scrutinised, the off-fielders’ misdemeanours splashed across the social media walls, and his commitment and work ethic debated.
Then, just like that, as though nothing had happened, as though he had flicked a switch, the broken parts of his world glued back. His nine outings before this had produced only 105 runs. This knock alone nudged closer to the overall haul. It was as though he went to a time-lapse, that the firebrand of the old sprang back.
Riyan Parag of Rajasthan Royals play a shot during Match 43 of the TATA Indian Premier League 2026. (Photo by Arjun Singh / CREIMAS for IPL)
His side wobbling, with the hasty departures of Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and Yashasvi Jaiswal, Royals faced a familiar crisis. Five watchful dot balls later, he cuffed Mitchell Starc. through deep midwicket for a four. The stroke changed his mood and form. The hands were going through the swing freely, the feet were moving precisely, and the eyes were judging the lengths sharply.
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The awkwardly tall Kyle Jamieson, who had blasted Vaibhav’s stumps with a vicious yorker, bore the early brunt. He was swung over deep mid-wicket, one of his staple strokes. His whole set-up, the front-foot clearing up, facilitates an easy swing and imparts power off his body tilted for the big leg-sides swipes. So Jamieson went wide, and Parag creamed him over extra cover. The leg-side expeditions waited until Axar Patel came. He clobbered him for successive sixes, one through long-on and the other over mid-wicket.
He and Jurel, largely playing the support role, stitched up 102 runs in 59 balls. Royals sustained the impetus through Parag and Ravindra Jadeja with a 53-run tango. But then both to the wits of Starc, ageing like fine wine. The Capitals seemed to stall the Royals’ march, but entered Donovan Ferreira, whose 14-ball 47 not out powered them to 225.
Brief Scores: RR 225/6 (Parag 90, Ferreira 47, Jurel 42; Starc 3/40) lost to DC 226/3 (Rahul 75, Nissanka 62), Rana 33) by seven wickets.
