Delhi Capitals posted the third-highest total in IPL history on Saturday. By Monday evening, the same eleven were 8 for 6 inside four overs at the same ground.
The Saturday game — KL Rahul’s record 152* and Punjab Kings’ record chase of 265 — was supposed to be the worst weekend Delhi could have. It wasn’t.
8 Runs, 6 Wickets, 23 Balls
Royal Challengers Bengaluru showed up Monday with Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Inside four overs, DC were 8/6. Six wickets in 23 balls. The end-of-powerplay score read 13/6 — the lowest powerplay total ever in a full IPL match.
Bhuvneshwar’s inswinger bowled 18-year-old debutant Sahil Parakh. Hazlewood finished with 4/12, Bhuvi 3/5. KL Rahul, who’d hit 152* from this same crease 48 hours earlier, was gone in single digits. Axar Patel had an explanation.
What Axar Said vs What Happened
He called it “bad luck.” Cited “hesitation” from the previous game. Then admitted the part nobody could argue with: “Mujhe bhi nahi pata kya hua” — I also don’t know what happened.
Abhishek Sharma’s 135* had already exposed DC’s bowling. DC were all out for 75 in 12.4 overs — their third-lowest IPL total, behind only a 66 and a 67 from 2017. DC had beaten RCB at the Chinnaswamy earlier this month. RCB chased 76 in 6.3 overs, winning by 9 wickets with 81 balls to spare. That’s the second-biggest win by balls remaining in IPL history. The whole match — both innings — lasted 19 overs.
Kohli’s 81 off 44 against GT showed his chase mastery. Virat Kohli became the first batter to cross 9,000 IPL career runs during the chase. RCB’s Suyash Sharma bowled 20 dot balls, the first spinner ever to do that in an IPL match. DC co-owner Parth Jindal posted “tough to take.”
Exactly 15 years earlier — April 27, 2011 — Delhi had collapsed against the same opponent on the same date. The “Curse of April 27” trended within hours.
Same pitch, both matches. Saturday it didn’t matter. Monday it was the only thing that did. Young DC spinner Rehan Ahmed summed up the weekend in five words: “One game 260, next 70.”
Numbers like these don’t tell a story. They tell a joke.