Lucknow, After Mukesh Kumar's 4 wickets, Abhishek Porel (51), KL Rahul (57 not out) and captain Axar Patel (34 not out) helped Delhi Capitals crush Lucknow Super Giants by 8 wickets for the second consecutive time in IPL 2025.

Delhi, bowling first, stopped Lucknow at 159 for 6 and then achieved the target by scoring 161 for 2 in 17.5 overs.

KL Rahul also completed the fastest 5000 runs in IPL history during his innings. He did this feat in 130 innings. Rahul hit a six soon after this and gave Delhi an 8-wicket win in the 18th over itself.

Rahul hit three fours and three sixes in 42 balls. Axar Patel hit four sixes and a four in 20 balls. At the same time, Porel hit five fours and a six in 36 balls.

This is Delhi's sixth win in 8 matches and the team now has 12 points. Delhi is still firmly placed at the second position. Lucknow has suffered its fourth defeat in 9 matches.

Earlier, despite a half-century by opener Aiden Markram and a partnership of 87 runs in 60 balls for the first wicket with Mitchell Marsh, the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) team could only score 159 runs for 6 wickets. This is the lowest score of the current season at this ground. For Delhi, Mukesh Kumar took four wickets for 33 runs in four overs.

Markram hit two fours and three sixes in his 33-ball innings while Marsh hit a six and three fours in 36 balls. In the last over, Ayush Badoni scored 36 runs with the help of six fours in 21 balls and brought the team's score close to 160.

After inviting LSG to bat, captain Akshar Patel started the bowling and bowled tight from one end, while Markram opened his account by hitting a six against Mitchell Starc (one wicket for 25 runs). He hit Mukesh Kumar in the fourth over, while Mitchell Marsh hit the ball to the spectators against Dushmanta Chameera (one wicket for 25 runs) in the sixth over, due to which the team scored 51 runs without any loss in the powerplay.

Markram welcomed local player Vipraaj Nigam with a six, while Marsh scored 14 runs from this over by hitting a brilliant four on the sweep shot. Markram completed his half-century in 30 balls by taking two runs against Starc on the last ball of the ninth over. However, in an attempt to accelerate the run rate, he played Chameera's ball into the hands of Tristan Stubbs in the cover area.

Nicholas Pooran (nine), who was in great form, had just opened his hands with two consecutive fours against Kuldeep when Starc deceived this aggressive batsman with a slow short pitch ball and bowled him out.

Lucknow's team sent Abdul Samad, who batted explosively in the last match, to the crease to speed up the run rate, but he returned to the pavilion after scoring just two runs in eight balls. Mukesh Kumar caught his return catch on his own ball. Mukesh then bowled Marsh to give Delhi a big success.

Captain Rishabh Pant's decision to send David Miller and Ayush Badoni before himself in the batting order seemed incomprehensible. Ayush Badoni got a lifeline in the 16th over on Mukesh's ball when Stubbs dropped his easy catch.

This batsman celebrated it by hitting a four. He also hit fours against Chameera and Starc but failed to speed up the team's run rate as David Miller was unable to play a big shot from the other end.

Badoni hit a hat-trick of fours on the first three balls of the last over against Mukesh but was bowled on the fourth ball. Pant also played Mukesh's ball onto the wickets in the last two balls without making any contribution. Miller could only score 14 runs in 15 balls with just one four.