Lucknow Super Giants vs Delhi Capitals, 40th Match - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

One of those rare days where both participating teams remain static on the points table. DC on 2nd and LSG 5th. Six wins each for GT and DC and both look strong contenders to make it to the playoffs from here. This is LSG's second loss in three games and their fans would hope that this (phase) is just a minor blip in an otherwise superb campaign for them. Up next will be the battle between SRH and MI in Hyderabad. While SRH would be desperate for a win to stay in contention, MI will be keen to record their 4th successive win and therefore, enter into the top 4. Can we expect a batting belter? All slow-low pot boiler? Find it out tomorrow on this space. Until then, good night and goodbye from the trio of comms - Raju Peethala, Abhinand Raghavendran, and Abhinav Guha. Our sprightly scoring duo of Siva and Harish say cheers!!

Mukesh Kumar | Player of the Match: Feels really good. Really enjoyed bowling on this wicket. Before bowling my second over, I had a chat with the other bowlers and they told me that it is stopping a bit so I tried to mix it up. I always communicate with the skipper regarding my plans, whether I am bowling slower balls or yorkers. Mitchell Marsh wicket was really crucial, and picking up his wicket was really key for the team around that time. I was trying to perform like this from the start, but it wasn't happening and I would like to take this form going forward. (roughly translated from Hindi).

Axar Patel | DC skipper: The way we started with the ball, we didn't take wickets but we were in control of the game. Once we picked up 2 quick wickets, we got the momentum and all the bowlers did well to restrict them under 160. I have a slight injury which is why I haven't been bowling much so far and today I felt in good rhythm and bowled up front. I was also looking at the match-ups (whenever I made a bowling change) and that is how I rotated my bowlers and all of them responded very well. I always play according to my strengths whenever I walk out to bat, doesn't matter which position I am batting, and I have been getting success whenever I tried to line-up a bowler, so feeling good. We can improve our fielding a bit. (roughly translated from Hindi). The drop chances will be crucial during crunch games going ahead.

Abishek Porel: I wanted to utilise the powerplay, that was the planning, it was a big ground, so the idea was to find the gaps. If it was in my zone, the plan was to hit a six. We were talking that it’s a matter of one or two overs, we wanted to play as less dot balls as possible. So, the discussion with KL (Rahul) was that we can makeup anytime and we wanted to play the ball on its merit.

Rishabh Pant | LSG captain: We knew we were 20 runs short. In Lucknow, toss played a big part. Whoever is bowling first, they get a lot of help from the wicket. We just had to stay back, we just couldn't get it away. It always happens in Lucknow, in the second innings, the wicket gets better and batter to bat on, that's how the game goes and you can't be complaining. Yes, toss is playing a huge part here, but as a team, we are not looking for excuses. That is one idea why we are impacting Ayush, to get Mayank some game time, just trying to find ways to get him early in the season because it's already halfway around. He came from NCA now, just trying to fit him in. (On him batting down the order today) Idea was to like capitalize. We sent Samad to capitalize on a wicket like that. After that Miller came in and we just really got stuck in the wicket. Eventually, these are the things we got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward. (On the upcoming matches away from home) I haven't thought about anything as of now, just finished the match, we are gonna regroup, realign and refocus again. Just going to be playing the next match from a fresh start.

Delhi Capitals winning six out of their first eight matches in a season
2009
2012
2020
2021
2025 *
They qualified to the Play Offs in each of the four previous seasons.

22:53 local, 17:23 GMT, 22:53 IST: KL Rahul wasn't part of the playing XI when DC won their opening game against LSG in Vizag, but he couldn't have asked for a better stage (read: venue) to do the double on them. Against his former franchise and on a ground that he knows like the back of his palm, he played a matured knock, ensuring a smooth-sail during the chase. In fairness, LSG didn't have enough runs on the board and only managed 84 from the last 12 overs. DC lost Karun Nair early, but fifties from Porel and Rahul along with the cameo from skipper Axar helped the team chase a below-par total without any hiccups. A vital win this for DC as they lost 2 of their 3 previous games (the win was via superover), and a loss here could have been a huge blow to their momentum going forward. Hang around for the post-match reactions...

Prince Yadav to Rahul, SIX, pulled away over mid-wicket to make it 2/2 against LSG this season. Short ball from Prince Yadav and Rahul timed it superbly to bring up an 8-wicket victory

Fewest innings to 5000 IPL runs
130 KL Rahul
135 D Warner
157 V Kohli
161 AB de Villiers
168 S Dhawan

Prince Yadav to Axar, 1 run, full on the stumps, Axar biffs it to the right of long-on

Prince Yadav to Rahul, 1 run, tries the yorker and ends up feeding a low full toss just outside off, Rahul drills it to long-on and goes past 5000 runs in IPL. Also the fastest to achieve that landmark

Prince Yadav to Axar, 1 run, makes room and pulls the short ball to the left of deep mid-wicket

Prince Yadav to Rahul, 1 run, a well-deserved fifty for KL Rahul. It's against his former team and he is happy to acknowledge the support with a raise of the bat. Got there with a flick round the corner on the leg-side

Prince Yadav [2.0-0-13-0] is back into the attack

Digvesh Rathi to Axar, no run, googly wide of off, Axar looks to slap it through the off-side and gets beaten on the outside edge

Digvesh Rathi to Axar, SIX, that was right off the meat of the bat. Full on leg stump, Axar clears his front leg and marmalizes it for an 82-metre maximum over cow corner

Digvesh Rathi to Rahul, 1 run, stabbed wide of cover

Digvesh Rathi to Axar, 1 run, Prince drops a dolly. Avesh has his hands on hand. Axar slogs at the googly and the top-edge travels to the left of short third man where Prince fails to hold onto the reverse cup...

Digvesh Rathi to Rahul, 1 run, short outside off, cut away to Pooran at sweeper cover

Digvesh Rathi to Axar, 1 run, quicker on leg stump, clipped away to the left of deep mid-wicket