KL Rahul has not had the best start to the Indian Premier League 2026. The Delhi Capitals star was dismissed for a golden duck in his team’s season opener against Lucknow Super Giants and has now been removed for one in DC’s clash against the Mumbai Indians at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Rahul fell to MI’s Deepak Chahar on the third ball he faced in the first over, being caught behind after nicking a ball on the leg side. DC were rocked with this early blow in their chase of 163 on a two-paced surface as Rahul could well have dictated the terms in the middling chase.
Rahul’s record comes to an end
The dismissal also ended Rahul’s all-time IPL record. This was the first time Chahar had dismissed him in the Indian cash-rich league. Coming into this game, the DC star had scored 159 runs off 100 balls against the MI speedster and added one more in the three balls that he faced.ย
The 159 runs were the most a batter has scored against a bowler in the IPL, a record that was held by Rahul, which came to an end now.
MI score 162 against DC in bid for second win
Meanwhile, MI made a challenging 162/6 against DC in the afternoon game in Delhi. Leading in place of the unwell Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav top-scored with 51 from 36 balls, while Rohit Sharma made 35 from 26 deliveries. Naman Dhir (28 off 21), Mitchell Santner (18 off 13) and Corbin Bosch (11 off 4) gave the final touches as MI posted a decent score on this surface.
DC opt to bowl after winning toss
DC won the toss and opted to bowl first. “First game, home ground, we want to see how the wicket behaves. We won from 26 for 4, which gives us confidence. The top order knows there’s a net for them. The home crowd want to show them exciting cricket. Same team,” skipper Axar Patel said at the toss.
“Hardik’s not well, doesn’t look good. So, I’m getting into his shoes today. If you win the first game after 13-14 years, there’s a lot of confidence. Toss was irrelevant. We wanted to bat first. Deepak Chahar comes in for Hardik, Corbin Bosch comes in for Boult, that’s a tactical call, Mitch Santner comes in for Ghazanfar,” Surya said at the toss.