KL Rahul marked yet another landmark in his IPL journey as Delhi Capitals faced Kolkata Knight Riders at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday. While Rahul’s innings ended on 23 runs, the knock still carried a significant piece of history: he became the first player in IPL history to cross 1,000 runs for three separate franchises.
Rahul’s tally now stands at 2,548 runs for Punjab Kings, 1,410 runs for Lucknow Super Giants, and 1,002 runs for Delhi Capitals. The milestone highlights how he has sustained high standards across different team setups and batting roles throughout his IPL career.
How Rahul’s dismissal happened
- The breakthrough arrived on the final ball of the fifth over.
- Kartik Tyagi beat Rahul with a slower delivery.
- Rahul tried to lift the ball inside-out over cover, but couldn’t reach the pitch.
- He ended up slicing the shot high towards mid-on, where Cameron Green took a well-positioned catch.
Even with the early exit, Rahul also became the fastest batter to reach the 1,000-run mark for Delhi Capitals. He achieved it in just 23 innings, eclipsing the previous joint record held by JP Duminy and Rishabh Pant, who each required 35 innings.
Pre-match and team news
Earlier, KKR captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and chose to bowl first. Kolkata kept the same playing XI, while Delhi made two changes: Mukesh Kumar and Vipraj Nigam were brought in for T Natarajan and Karun Nair.
- Delhi Capitals: Axar Patel (c), Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul (wk), Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Lungi Ngidi, Mukesh Kumar
- Kolkata Knight Riders: Ajinkya Rahane (c), Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Cameron Green, Rovman Powell, Manish Pandey, Rinku Singh, Sunil Narine, Anukul Roy, Kartik Tyagi, Vaibhav Arora, Varun Chakaravarthy
