Kuldeep Yadav announced his return in style with a three-wicket burst as Delhi Capitals beat an off-colour Kolkata Knight Riders by 40 runs in a league fixture of IPL 2026 that had little meaning beyond final placings. The match, played in Kolkata on Sunday, saw KL Rahul set the tone at the top with a fast 60, before Kuldeep turned the chase on its head.
Quick facts
- Match: KKR vs DC, IPL 2026 (final league game), played in Kolkata on Sunday
- Result: Delhi Capitals won by 40 runs
- Delhi finish: 203/5 after Ajinkya Rahane chose to bowl
- Rahul innings: 30 balls, 60 (5 fours, 4 sixes), his sixth fifty of the season
- Kuldeep figures: 3/29
- KKR chase: 163 all out in 18.4 overs (7th defeat of the season)
- Other bowling highlights: Starc 2/26, Ngidi 3/27 (3.4 overs)
- Final standings impact: DC reached 14 points (7 wins, 7 losses), leapfrogged KKR (13 points); top four were RCB, GT, SRH, RR
- Elsewhere: Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians by 30 runs at Wankhede to secure the final playoff spot
Rahul was at his most destructive, striking five fours and four sixes in a 30-ball knock of 60. His innings arrived as Delhi compiled pressure early and then built a big platform, finishing on 203 for the loss of five wickets after Rahane elected to bowl.
KKR’s response began poorly as Kuldeep, operating as an aggressive comeback option, dismantled their batting in quick succession. He first struck to remove Cameron Green for 2, then produced the real damage by taking Rahane (63) and Rinku Singh (0) in consecutive moments off back-to-back deliveries.
The spinner was close to a hat-trick as well. On the very next ball, KKR wicketkeeper Tejasvi Dahiya got an edge, but Abhishek Porel spilled the chance behind the stumps, denying Kuldeep the third wicket in a row.
Kuldeep’s return carried extra weight because he had failed to take a wicket in his previous three outings and had also been left out before this game. This time, he ended with 3/29, and that spell proved decisive as KKR’s chase fell apart after Rahane’s dismissal.
KKR were eventually bowled out for 163 in 18.4 overs, slumping to their seventh defeat of the campaign. Mitchell Starc, bowling against the side with whom he won the IPL title last season, contributed 2/26 from three overs as Delhi controlled the tempo throughout the chase.
Lungi Ngidi completed the finishing work by removing the last wicket of Varun Chakravarthy. With that, Delhi wrapped up the match with seven wins and seven losses, climbing above KKR to end sixth in the standings.
KKR ended the league phase seventh, collecting six victories from 14 matches under Rahane and enduring another difficult season. Under his leadership, the team also suffered a disappointing 2025 campaign, finishing eighth—the first time they had placed that low since 2009.
Rahane’s stand and Kuldeep’s late strike
Rahane, who was possibly playing his final game for the franchise, produced one of his best knocks of the season to keep KKR in the hunt for as long as he could. Ngidi had already made an early dent, dismissing Finn Allen for 20 in the powerplay and then striking to remove Manish Pandey for 25 as Pandey tried to rebuild alongside Rahane.
Once set, Rahane looked in sublime touch. He took on Auqib Nabi with consecutive sixes over long-on and deep midwicket, then launched Axar Patel for two successive sixes to reach a 31-ball half-century.
But Kuldeep arrived with the final say. Sensing Rahane was stepping aside, the spinner tossed one up that dipped fully outside the leg stump. Rahane tried to lift it straight down the ground, only to slice it to David Miller, ending a brilliant 39-ball 63 made up of four fours and four sixes.
From there, the contest became effectively one-sided, and KKR’s chase never recovered. Delhi had been aiming at a total beyond 220 at the halfway point, and the pressure built further as Kuldeep began removing set batters.
As early as the fourth over of the day, the wider tournament picture also shifted elsewhere. Rajasthan Royals beat Mumbai Indians by 30 runs at the Wankhede Stadium to seal the fourth and final playoff berth, turning KKR’s match into a true dead rubber from a qualification standpoint.
That outcome knocked out both KKR and Punjab Kings. Punjab Kings had briefly kept their hopes alive with a win over Lucknow Super Giants on Saturday, but the results around them ensured their campaign ended as well—while Delhi had already been eliminated following PBKS’s victory earlier in the week.
With little at stake besides final standings, intensity on the field was noticeably uneven. KKR vice-captain Rinku Singh dropped Sahil Parakh on seven, and Sunil Narine endured an unusually costly outing of 1/38 before being replaced by Allen.
There was also a puzzling decision to keep using Chakravarthy in the dead rubber, despite the India spinner carrying a hairline fracture in his left toe. He still returned with 1/35, including the wicket of Delhi captain Patel for 39 in his final over.
Rahul’s early aggression
Rahul set the tone early by attacking Narine. In the eighth over, he went down the track and launched him over long-on, and on the next delivery used his feet again to loft the spinner over his head for four.
Rahul kept pressing in Narine’s following over, hammering the first ball for another six over long-on. Narine then struck back to end Rahul’s developing stand with Sahil Parakh (24), who miscued a delivery.
Even after that, Rahul refused to slow down. He combined clean timing with aggression as he targeted Kartik Tyagi in the 11th over, smashing a four and then hitting a sublime straight six over long-off to reach a 25-ball fifty. That over produced 20 runs, leaving Delhi well placed to chase something above 220 at the midway stage.
However, KKR managed to stem the flow through Anukul Roy (1/23 in two overs), who dismissed Rahul against the run of play.
