April 2, 2026

IPL 2026: Sameer Rizvi takes Delhi Capitals home after initial scare after bowlers set up opening win against Lucknow Super Giants

IPL 2026: Sameer Rizvi takes Delhi Capitals home after initial scare after bowlers set up opening win against Lucknow Super Giants

Ngidi and Co. restrict LSG’s reshuffled batting order to a low total before Rizvi saves DC from a collapse with the most important innings of his IPL career, ensuring a winning start.

The scorecard may not do justice to the pressure Delhi would have felt for the first 30 minutes of their chase of 142, but a coming-of-age performance from 22-year-old Sameer Rizvi allowed them to absorb the pressure of a 26/4 situation before hitting back. The win was set up by a complete bowling performance, despite some eyebrow-raising decisions about the playing XI.

Tame effort

Both teams have exciting Indian pacers, but chose to leave them out. Delhi’s Auqib Nabi, star of Jammu and Kashmir’s Ranji Trophy win this year, must wait for his IPL debut while Lucknow’s Mayank Yadav, now fully fit, did not get a game either.

Lucknow has a number of high-profile individuals in their think tank. Coach Justin Langer is assisted by Kane Williamson, Lance Klusener and Bharat Arun, while Tom Moody is the global director of the franchise. Call it a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth, as the ploy to re-shuffle their batting order from last year backfired quite badly on Wednesday.

The strategic motivations behind putting Rishabh Pant at the top of the order were not made clear. It may be because the franchise was trying to work their marquee player and captain back into form after a poor season last year in the middle order. But doing so, and pushing Nicholas Pooran down to No. 5, hampered their prospects on what looked like a two-paced track where the ball did not come on to the bat nicely.

Pant will surely not be judged on Wednesday’s outing, as he was immensely unfortunate to be run out at the non-striker’s end after a straight drive from Mitchell March hit Mukesh Kumar’s hand and ricocheted onto the stumps.

But the batting performance of the others left much to be desired, and showed hints of mis-profiling from the think tank. Ayush Badoni coming in before Pooran proved to be just as wise as expecting late-order hitters like Mukul Choudhary and Abdul Samad to build a partnership.

And a fine all-round bowling performance from Delhi gave them no reprieve either. Axar Patel proved his cleverness, as captain with the rotation of his roster, but also as a bowler when a devilish quicker one castled Aiden Markram. Then Lungi Ngidi, the pick of the bowlers, came up with a signature wicked slower ball to eliminate Pooran.

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Kuldeep Yadav’s courage in flighting the ball, with his variations in spin and pace, proved useful with the crucial wicket of Marsh. This may have been a tame effort from Lucknow, but Delhi’s bowling smarts unquestionably made it look worse.

Rizvi stands up

Lucknow’s shoddy display with the bat, not getting an additional 20-30 runs after their early stumble, felt even more crucial after their bowlers made inroads early in Delhi’s chase. Mohsin Khan and Prince Yadav ably assisted a resurgent Mohammed Shami to provide the opposition with a genuine early scare even in a meagre chase of 142.

Shami got KL Rahul caught in the deep on the first ball and applied relentless pressure thereafter. There wasn’t much rspite from the other end either. Mohsin had Nitish Rana caught at slip. Prince picked up Pathum Nissanka and Axar Patel in the same over, the latter with a peach – a quick one at a Test-match length swinging in to clatter the left-hander’s stumps. Delhi were 26/4 in the fifth over before Rizvi and Tristan Stubbs dug in.

Entrusted as the Impact Player over Ashutosh Sharma, Rizvi was composed. With the luxury of a small score to chase, he could ride the early storm, putting a prize on his wicket when Lucknow’s seamers were moving the ball around. Once he had established a partnership with the South African, he moved up the gears and to storm to take his team home with an unbeaten 47-ball 70 and an unbroken 119-run stand for the fifth wicket off 76 balls.

The result had been a foregone conclusion well before Rizvi finished the run chase with a six at the start of the 18th over. The Delhi bowlers had given their batters the cushion, and they didn’t drop the ball.

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Brief scores: Lucknow Super Giants 141 all out in 18.4 overs (Abdul Samad 36, Mitchell Marsh 35; Lungi Ngidi 3/27, T Natarajan 3/29) lost to Delhi Capitals 145/4 in 17.1 overs (Sameer Rizvi 70 not out, Tristan Stubbs 39 not out; Prince Yadav 2/20) by six wickets

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