DC stun RR with bowling masterclass; Sooryavanshi’s record sixes fall short
Delhi Capitals beat Rajasthan Royals by restricting them to 193/8 at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Madhav Tiwari’s 2/27 and Mitchell Starc’s 4/40 sealed the win.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi smashed 43 runs off 17 balls and took his IPL 2026 sixes tally to 43, a new record for an Indian batter in a single season. Madhav Tiwari’s 2/27 proved decisive as DC restricted RR to 193/8.
IPL 2026, Delhi Capitals, Rajasthan Royals, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Madhav Tiwari, Mitchell Starc, Riyan Parag, Arun Jaitley Stadium
Delhi Capitals stayed alive in the IPL 2026 race with a hard-fought victory over Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday night. RR were held to 193/8, well short of the 220-plus total they seemed poised to post at one stage.
The evening belonged to Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, who came out with typical aggression. Batting on 43 runs from 17 balls, a voice nearby joked that his explosive form had become so familiar that his big hits no longer felt like an anomaly. By the end of his innings, he had added 46 runs from 21 balls, laced with three sixes and five boundaries, pushing his season tally to 43 sixes — the most by an Indian batter in a single IPL campaign, surpassing Abhishek Sharma’s 42 in 2024. He entered the match with 440 runs and climbed to sixth in the Orange Cap race. His knock was cut short by Madhav Tiwari, the 22-year-old Delhi Capitals seamer who had already made his mark with a 2/40 and an unbeaten 18 against Punjab Kings on May 11.
Tiwari’s figures of 2/27 proved telling even though Lungi Ngidi (2/24) was more economical and Mitchell Starc (4/40) was the most lethal. Starc struck thrice in a single over and was on a hat-trick chance, dismissing Riyan Parag, Donovan Ferreira and Ravi Singh. But the big impact arguably came from Tiwari’s wicket of Sooryavanshi, which not only applied the brakes on the RR batting machine but also removed a potential massive total down the order.
RR were 160/2 after 14 overs, with Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag adding 72 runs. Skipper Parag was doing the bulk of the scoring, registering a 51 off 26 balls. At one point, a 220-plus total looked within reach. However, DC bowlers brought plenty of variations to the fore, with Ngidi mixing slower balls and deliveries that climbed up to the batters. Tiwari added the wicket of Shubham Dubey as the last six overs yielded just 33 runs at the cost of six wickets.
“Coming into this IPL season, I just thought that I’m gonna take in four or five variations with me and I’m gonna back them throughout the season. So, I have been working on them, and hopefully, the results are helping in my favour,” Tiwari said during the mid-innings interaction. “I guess there was a bit of help from the wicket. It was gripping, and so I thought that I could use more of them. I was just looking to put myself (in) a high-pressure situation in the nets themselves. So bowling to Miller and bowling to Ashutosh Sharma and KL Rahul helped.”
Despite the loss, Sooryavanshi’s record-breaking sixes count remained the highlight of the night, even as the Delhi Capitals’ bowling unit delivered a performance they had not produced at home throughout the season so far.
