LSG and DC both lost their second wicket in the 12th over of their respective innings. When a well-set Abishek Porel fell, Axar Patel walked in. There really wasn’t any real pressure on DC at this stage but a couple of wickets, and with new batters needing time to settle in, it could have gotten tricky. After four dot balls against Avesh Khan, Axar wasted little time to make an impact, he took down Ravi Bishnoi in the very next over with two sixes over midwicket region, his favourite shot against spin. Back against Avesh in the next over, again after being beaten by a couple of deliveries, he took the risk to try and clear the fielder at mid off, and succeeded by hitting a four. A six off Shardul Thakur was the standout shot as he picked up a not-so-short ball with the weight still on his backfoot to send the ball over long on.

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Delhi Capitals’ captain Axar Patel plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match. (Agencies)It wasn’t just with the bat. Axar hadn’t bowled as much earlier in the season because of a finger injury he had picked up during the Champions Trophy, but on Tuesday, he stepped up to bowl in the powerplay… right through. Three overs of Axar in the first six went for just 19 runs, as he took the new ball to capitalise on the slowness of conditions early on. From the other end, three overs of pace went for 32 runs. The player of the match award eventually went to Mukesh Kumar for his figures of 4/33 but that was Axar’s performance was arguably even more impactful, including the intangible aspect of leadership.

Pant’s forgettable night

On the other hand, when Lucknow’s main man Nicholas Pooran was removed by Mitch Starc (for the fifth time in seven T20s, no less), the hosts sent in Abdul Samad in at No 4, with another right-hander already in the middle in Mitch Marsh. Their captain, Rishabh Pant, eventually came out to bat with two balls remaining in the innings and was out trying to play a reverse scoop off the last ball of the 20th over.

“Idea was to capitalise on a wicket like that by sending Samad up, after that Miller came in… and we just really got stuck in that wicket. Eventually, these are the things we got to figure out and try to find our best combination going forward,” Pant said later. His explanation for using Ayush Badoni as an Impact Sub for consecutive matches while batting first – despite having Mayank Yadav’s raw pace available as a bowling sub option – also didn’t quite make sense. Pant also had an ordinary day behind the stumps, when he gave into an overexcited LBW appeal from Digvesh Rathi against KL Rahul – the impact was so much outside the offstump that Rahul’s planted front foot might as well have been in Delhi. While LSG’s season is still pretty much on track for a playoff appearance, Pant is starting to appear increasingly rattled, his own poor form with the bat not helping matters.

Delhi Capitals’ Mukesh Kumar during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2025. (Agencies)Mukesh magic

He took a nice return catch to dismiss Samad to ensure LSG’s decision to promote him up the order didn’t pay off. After being hit for three fours at the start of the 20th over by Ayush Badoni, he corrected his line to target the stumps and end a very useful cameo by LSG’s crisis man in the middle order. And off the last ball, he got the better of an overly adventurous Pant.

But the undoubted highlight of the match was Mukesh Kumar’s sensational yorker to Mitch Marsh. End of the 14th over, Mukesh nailed an inswinging yorker that zoned in on the base of the offstump like a heat-seeking missile controlled remotely. The release was from wide of the crease, starting from well outside the offstump, before tailing in. Marsh looked stunned. In a season where yorkers are making a grand comeback, that might just be the best of the lot.