Delhi Capitals seamer Mukesh Kumar showed his class against Lucknow Super Giants in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Ekana Cricket Stadium. Mukesh Kumar took four wickets as LSG were restricted to 159/6 in 20 overs. Mukesh Kumar took two of those scalps in his final over, including that of LSG skipper Rishabh Pant. Mukesh Kumar recorded his career-best bowling figures in the IPL.
As mentioned, Mukesh Kumar has registered his career-best bowling returns in the IPL. This was the first instance of him recording a four-wicket haul in the tournament (Previous-best: 3/14 in IPL 2024). Notably, only two bowlers have taken a five-wicket haul for DC.
This was the first instance of Mukesh Kumar taking multiple wickets in a match this IPL season (2025). The right-arm pacer has now raced to 33 wickets from 28 matches at an average of 28.39. His economy rate reads 10.12. Overall, Mukesh Kumar now has 80 wickets from 73 T20s at an average of under 29. He recorded his second four-wicket haul in T20s.
Mukesh Kumar’s four-wicket haul engineered a great turnaround for Delhi Capitals as they registered a comfortable eight-wicket victory against Lucknow Super Giants at the Ekana stadium. LSG had made a great start but they ended up being restricted to 159/6 after being asked to bat. DC paced the chase well thanks to fifties from Abhishek Porel and KL Rahul as they got over the line in 17.5 overs to consolidate their second spot in the standings.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : ” The average score here at this venue is around 190. Take this pitch to any other venue, it’ll be 210-215 because of the dimension of this ground. It’s quite a big venue here. 72m and 60m square boundaries, down the ground it’s 78m. This pitch has been used before. It’s a red soil pitch, It looks like a really nice surface. The one thing that I saw straightaway is how hard this surface is. If you come down and have a look at this surface and hear it, there’s been a lot of rolling on this surface.
As soon as I came out and put my fingers into the surface, it made me want to put on the pads. It is red soil, so there’s going to be pace and bounce for the quicks, there’s going to be a little bit of grip on this surface as well for the spinners. It’s going to be a very good cricket wicket. If you bowl well, things will go well. If you bat well, there’s going to be shots all around the ground. The Lucknow Super Giants batters, top three in particular, they are gonna want to make the most of this surface.
It might turn a little in the first half, almost the same way it played in the first game where LSG got 172 batting first and it was chased down rather easily by Punjab Kings. This might be a ‘win the toss and chase’ kind of a pitch.” reckons Deep Dasgupta and Shane Watson in their pitch report.
Toss : Delhi Capitals skipper Axar Patel won the toss and chose to bowl with one change in the Playing XI bringing in Dushmantha Chameera for Mohit Sharma. Lucknow Super Giants skipper Rishabh Pant batting first made no changes in the Playing XI.
Mukesh Kumar’s 4-wicket haul restricts LSG to 159 for 6
With plenty of left-handers in the LSG middle order, Axar Patel decided to start off the attack against the two right-handed openers and he gave away only three in the opening over. But LSG picked up pace soon after as Aiden Markram hooked Mitchell Starc for a six while Mitchell Marsh struck a four off Axar.
Markram then took on Mukesh Kumar, slashing one for a four and playing an exquisite on-drive for a six. Axar bowled another over inside the powerplay and was hit for a four by Marsh while Dushmantha Chameera, who replaced Mohit Sharma, was struck for a six by Marsh as LSG crossed 50.
Axar bowled his four overs at one go and finished with 0 for 29, with Markram scoring a boundary in his last over. Vipraj Nigam had an expensive start, being hit for a six over midwicket by Markram while Marsh swept him for a four. The South African then brought up a 30-ball half-century, getting his fourth fifty-plus score in six innings.
After being asked to bat, LSG had another strong start, passing fifty for the sixth time in nine innings in the powerplay this season. Aiden Markram scored 30 of the 51 runs LSG had scored in the powerplay, including two sixes. Mitchell Marsh was happy to ride in Markram’s slipstream.
Markram also batted with high intent against spin, swatting Axar down the ground for four, and pulling Vipraj Nigam over midwicket for six. Markram went on to bring up his fifty off 30 balls, but when he tried to clear the bigger boundary on the off side, he holed out to sweeper cover for 52 off 33 balls.
It was Dushmantha Chameera who had provided DC with the breakthrough in his first game this season. Axar, meanwhile, had already bowled out by the seventh over, conceding 29 runs in four overs. It allowed him to backload Kuldeep Yadav’s overs. Kuldeep bowled the 11th, 13th, 15th and 17th overs, giving away 33 runs in his four overs.
DC, however, came back well by bagging quick wickets. Markram’s attempt to go aerial off Chameera resulted in a catch to deep cover while Nicholas Pooran, after striking two fours off Kuldeep Yadav, chopped on a Starc delivery, getting out to the left-arm pacer for the fifth time in seven innings. LSG, surprisingly, sent Abdul Samad in next but he had a slow start before falling to Mukesh Kumar.
After being on 87 for 0 in the tenth over, LSG could manage only 72 off the last ten. Mukesh Kumar led DC’s remarkable fightback with his hard lengths and reverse-swinging yorkers at the death.
In the 14th over, he coaxed a return catch from Abdul Samad, who was promoted to No. 4, and yorked Marsh while conceding just three runs. Then, in the last over of the innings, Ayush Badoni hit him for three fours in a row, but Mukesh Kumar bounced back to bowl both him and Pant, keeping LSG to their lowest total this season.
Mitchell Starc also played his part, having bested Nicholas Pooran with a slower bouncer for 9 off five balls. It was the fifth time in seven innings that Starc had dismissed Pooran in T20 cricket.
Marsh had also slowed down and he eventually fell for a 36-ball 45, bowled by an accurate yorker from Mukesh Kumar. Ayush Badoni, the impact sub, came out next, with Rishabh Pant continuing to drop down the order. Miller ended a boundary drought by sweeping Kuldeep for a four.
Mukesh Kumar could have picked up his third wicket but Stubbs grassed an opportunity to give Badoni a reprieve. The right-hander struck a four in the same over and also scored boundaries off Chameera and Starc. But it was slow-going otherwise with Miller not at his fluent best.
Badoni hit a hat-trick of boundaries off Mukesh Kumar in the final over but the bowler hit back with his wicket and also accounted for Pant who came to the crease only before the penultimate ball and fell for a duck. Kuldeep went wicketless but the pacemen, led by Mukesh Kumar, led an excellent comeback as DC kept LSG below 160.
As for Pant, he batted at No. 7 for the first time in the IPL since 2016, and lasted all of two balls for zero runs. Impact Player Badoni’s 36 off 21 balls gave LSG’s total a modicum of respectability, but it meant that they could not bring in Mayank Yadav during their defence.
Spectaular fifties from Abhishek Porel and KL Rahul
Karun Nair continued his impressive return to the IPL stage, starting with two fours off Shardul in the opening over while Abhishek Porel also struck a boundary. The left-hander also struck a four apiece off Digvesh Rathi and Prince Yadav before Karun hit a six off Markram but was bowled soon after. Rahul got going with fours off Yadav and Avesh Khan while Porel too struck a boundary off LSG’s premier pacer to take DC past 50 inside the powerplay.
The three overs after the powerplay didn’t yield any boundaries but DC made steady progress nevertheless. Porel finally managed a four off Markram in the 10th over as DC moved to 80 at the halfway stage.
The next over was a big one as Porel struck a six off Bishnoi en route to his first fifty this season, while Rahul also cleared the fence off the leg spinner before hitting a six off Markram in the 12th over to take DC past 100. The stand, worth 69, however came to an end in the same over as Porel handed a catch to deep midwicket.
Avesh followed it up with an economical over but Axar eased the pressure with two sixes off Bishnoi and a four off Avesh. Opener Abhishek Porel, who scored 51 off 36 balls for his first fifty of the season, and Axar, also contributed handsomely with the bat for DC.
The 16th over was also a good one for DC, with KL Rahul getting a four and Axar clearing the fence off Shardul, bringing the required rate below 5. Axar got a lucky break as he was put down by Yadav off Rathi and he capitalised by hitting his fourth six. KL Rahul then got to his third half-century of the season, brought up his 5000th run in the IPL, becoming the quickest to get there (130 innings), and finished it off with a six as DC won with plenty to spare.
IPL owners often summon captains to explain the decisions they make, but it usually happens behind closed doors. Live visuals of the LSG owner giving KL Rahul a dressing down after Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) mowed down 166 in under ten overs went viral last season. LSG did not retain KL Rahul after that, and when he ran into them at Ekana, he extended his fine form for DC with his third half-century this season.
KL Rahul also ticked off another landmark: he became the fastest to 5000 IPL runs, getting there in his 130th innings. He then sealed the chase with a six in the 18th over. After DC had lost Karun Nair early, Rahul steadied the innings along with Porel. He was on 19 off 20 balls at one point, but stepped up a gear when he slog-swept Ravi Bishnoi for six. Rahul went onto bring up his fifty off 40 balls. Axar started in fourth gear, and stayed there, as DC wrapped up the win with eight wickets and 13 balls to spare.
During the latter part of the middle overs. LSG were off to a great start, going strong at 82/0 after 9 overs. But the subsequent six overs saw DC stage a fine comeback, bagging four wickets while conceding only three fours. DC were a lot slower, getting 69/1 after 9 overs but stepped on the accelerator after that.
Only two fours came during the 10-15 overs phase for DC as well, but they dealt in maximums, getting as many as five sixes and by the end of the 15th over, they had 9 more than LSG at that stage. Another key difference was the number of maximums struck in both innings. While LSG got only three, DC got three times that to boss the chase.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Rishabh Pant the losing LSG skipper said : 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.
Axar Patel the winning DC skipper said : 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.
Mukesh Kumar Player of the match for his career best 4 wicket haul in the IPL said : 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.
KL Rahul was unavailable when Delhi Capitals (DC) met Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) earlier in IPL 2025. But coming up against LSG for the first time since they parted ways, Rahul anchored DC’s chase with a half-century and guided them home along with his captain Axar Patel. DC closed the gap with table-toppers Gujarat Titans, with only net run rate separating the two teams. DC’s win was set up by Mukesh Kumar, who claimed career-best IPL figures of 4 for 33 to restrict LSG to 159 for 6 after they were 87 for 0 in the tenth over.
LSG captain Rishabh Pant bizarrely didn’t walk out to bat until his team was five down, with just two balls left in their innings. After stepping out to his first ball and missing, he didn’t connect with a reverse-ramp next ball, and ended up deflecting the ball back on to the stumps off his pads for a duck.
His opposite number, however, had a more productive outing. After having taken the new ball and bowled four tight overs on the trot, Axar cracked an unbeaten 34 off 20 balls from No. 4.
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.
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.
LSG have a four-day break before their away game against Mumbai Indians at Wankhede on April 27. DC also play their next match on the same day, hosting Royal Challengers Bengaluru in the evening game.
Also Read: LSG vs DC: 3 Reasons For LSG’s Defeat Against DC