Watch: KL Rahul brings up blazing 29-ball fifty for DC against GT in IPL 2026

KL Rahul had a nightmare start to the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 campaign with a golden duck against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) for the Delhi Capitals (DC) before he got an edge into the leg side into the hands of the wicket-keeper to be unluckily dismissed for one run against the Mumbai Indians.

When the Gujarat Titans (GT) posted a massive score of 211 runs in their allotted 20 overs in the fixture at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, the onus was on the opening pair of KL Rahul and Pathum Nissanka to bail them out of trouble initially with a strong start inside the powerplay.

KL Rahul anchors innings with quickfire half-century

Rahul whipped his third delivery of the innings over the wide mid-on for a boundary. He leaned across and dismissed it over the on-side for one bounce over the ropes. On the fourth delivery, he lunged across into the drive and cleared the mid-off with ease as the ball bounced away to the ropes.

When Kagiso Rabada went into his leg stump with a half-volley, Rahul effortlessly flicked it over the long leg for a massive six. When Ashok Sharma came into the crease, the right-handed batter backed away and steered it up over the backward point for another boundary as the ball bounced in front of him and went over the ropes.

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Prasidh Krishna was torn apart around the park by the Karnataka batter. He picked the length early and hammered the pull past the square leg for a boundary before he slammed two successive sixes over the long-off and long-on region.

He finished the ninth over with another boundary and celebrated his first fifty of the IPL 2026 in just 29 balls. The responsibility was still on him to complete the chase.

DC gain momentum with KL's aggressive approach

Rahul found Rashid Khan, the trump card of the Titans, hard to deal with, but went after all the other bowlers from the start. He welcomed Washington Sundar into the attack with a fabulous slog sweep for a six. Even when Krishna came back into the attack, Rahul dispatched him for another boundary.

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Rashid troubled Delhi the most with a fine bowling performance of 3/17 in four overs. These three wickets were of Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi for a golden duck, and captain Axar Patel.

Brief Scores (at the time of writing): DC 134/4 (KL Rahul 71*, Rashid Khan 3/17) vs GT 210/4 (S Gill 70, Mukesh Kumar 2/55)  

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