KL Rahul almost has that quality of being invisible. He might score a lot of runs, but is almost never at the centre stage. Even when he scores 92 at a strike rate of 176.92 – not bad for someone once thought of as clueless about strike rates – his team doesn’t win. That continued to be the case when Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) in their IPL 2026 game on Saturday – Rahul scored 57 in 34 balls, but Tristan Stubbs did the big job with his 60 not out in 47 balls – scored at 127.65 to Rahul’s 167.64. But one thing didn’t go unnoticed: Rahul’s takedown of Josh Hazlewood.
Hazlewood is not the sort of bowler you charge at, not unless you are 15 or thereabouts and don’t know the meaning of fear, or you don’t respect all that Hazlewood has achieved in a glittering international career and even in the IPL – economy rate of 8.29 across 42 games, including this last game.
But on Saturday, first ball that Hazlewood bowled – length on off stump – Rahul went inside out over the covers and for six. Hazlewood pulled things back nicely after that, but returned for the fifth, and again, first ball, Rahul, the ball angling into him and going over square leg. Six more. To rub it in, Rahul also hit two fours in the over – a cut past point and a ramp between short third and point.
“He came after him early first ball, he pumped him over cover for six. He [Rahul] had a decent match up against Hazlewood. He’s probably the one player whose game really suits a bowler like Hazlewood, where he’s in and around that off stump,” Aaron Finch said on ESPNcricinfo’s TimeOut show. “Another guy with good Test batting technique. So yeah, that was a crucial innings. He just found the boundary every time he needed one.”
Rahul got to his half-century fairly quickly but fell just after the halfway point of the chase, leaving the job unfinished. Stubbs handled that part.
“Hazlewood generally – I wouldn’t say he struggles – is slightly easier to play when you take a little bit of room and try and play on the off side,” Ambati Rayudu pointed out to nods of agreement from Finch. “I think Rahul does that beautifully. That is his strength. He played a very, very good knock. He set the innings up for DC.”
Rahul has scored a lot of runs in the IPL over the years. He is at No. 7 on the all-time leading run-scorers’ table with 5390 runs from 141 innings. But at a strike rate of 136.83. It has been slightly different this time. He is joint-second on DC’s list with 168 runs from five innings (the same as Sameer Rizvi and just one run behind Stubbs’ 169), but his strike rate is 168.00. That’s well ahead of any of the team’s batters bar Ashutosh Sharma, who scored 19 in ten balls in his only innings this season.
If Rahul sustains it – a lot of runs and a lot of quick runs – it could be the start of something new for him.
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