Following SRH opener Abhishek Sharma's batting blitz, Delhi Capitals suffered a mammoth 47-run defeat in their IPL 2026 clash on Tuesday at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium. The young batter attacked DC for an unbeaten 135 off 68 balls to help SRH put up 242/2 in 20 overs. Chasing the total, DC were hardly able to gather momentum, finishing at 195/9 in 20 overs.
Nitish Rana and Sameer Rizvi provided some resistance, smacking 57 and 41, respectively. However, their efforts could not change the outcome of the match. Most importantly, veteran batter KL Rahul looked out of touch, managing 37 off 23 balls. In the wake of DC's loss, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra slammed KL Rahul's approach during the tense chase.
"Delhi What were you doing? If you are chasing 240, which is 99 percent not going to happen. So your Powerplay should be so explosive, or else you should at least try to score 85, 90 and 100 runs, because if you don't score those many runs, you won't be in the match at all. That's exactly what happened. What surprised me was that the intent was not visible. KL Rahul's intent was also not seen," Chopra said on his YouTube channel.
"It seemed he picked up an injury at the start. If he were injured, he should have gone out. If you are standing there, you have to keep maximising. You needed 12 runs per over from the first ball. It had become 13.5 runs per over after the powerplay, and by the time the 10th over was bowled, it had reached close to 15 runs per over. In my opinion, it was timid batting. We witnessed the same batting from LSG the other day. How will it work out?" Chopra stated.
Amid the latest loss, Delhi Capitals are perched fifth in the points table, having three defeats and three victories in six matches. Their next outing is against Punjab Kings on Saturday at Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.