IPL 2025: KL Rahul leads DC home on his return to Lucknow, as Rishabh Pant flops yet again

KL Rahul leads DC home on his return to Lucknow (BCCI Photo)

From the time the IPL 2025 schedule was released, this, the 40th match of the tournament, was one of the most eagerly anticipated. It was easy to bill it as Rishabh Pant against KL Rahul, given how the two had switched teams before the season began. In the event, it was no contest at all, with Delhi Capitals (DC) breezing to an eight-wicket victory over Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow. The win took them level on 12 points with Gujarat Titans at the top of the table, while LSG stayed fifth, just outside the playoff places.

As for the individual honours, Rahul made an unbeaten 57 off 42 balls to guide DC home after Karun Nair fell in the fourth over. Pant made a two-ball 0 after walking in at No. 7. Just to rub salt into the wound, Axar Patel, who replaced Pant as DC captain, smashed a 20-ball 34, inclusive of four sixes, to ensure that his team won with 13 balls to spare.

One of the big talking points of IPL 2024 had been the apparent dressing down that Rahul got on the field from Sanjiv Goenka, the franchise owner, after a Lucknow loss. Rahul captained LSG in their first three seasons, leading them into the playoffs twice, and though both men played down the incident, it was an open secret that he wouldn’t be retained ahead of the mega auction.

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Instead, LSG broke the bank to get Pant for Rupees 27 crores. So far, that investment has yielded a dismal 106 runs from 110 balls. And in another of those delicious quirks of fate that sport throws up, Rahul ended up with Delhi. So far, he has made 323 runs at an excellent strike-rate of 153.80. At the end of the game, he also went past 5,000 IPL runs, the fastest to get there (130 innings).

This was no one-man show though. DC’s bowlers deserve enormous credit for bouncing back after Aiden Markram and Mitchell Marsh added 87 for the first wicket in just 60 balls. But when Markram (52 off 33 balls) holed out to deep cover off Dushmantha Chameera’s bowling, it started a dramatic slide. Mitchell Starc castled the in-form Nicholas Pooran for just 9, and when Mukesh Kumar dismissed both Abdul Samad and Marsh in the same over, the innings started to stall.

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David Miller couldn’t get going at all, and it needed six fours from Ayush Badoni, the impact player replacing Marsh, to take LSG to 159/6. To defend that, they needed early wickets, but Karun and Abhishek Porel gave DC the perfect start. Though Karun fell for 15, aiming for a second six off Markram, Porel and Rahul added 69 in 49 balls to make sure the asking rate never assumed worrying proportions.

It's a measure of how well DC played that Kuldeep Yadav could have a rare off day with the ball. Mukesh starred instead with 4/33, deservedly picking up Player of the Match.