Unfortunately for Delhi Capitals, their captain Akshar Patel Retired Hurt after being well set up in a tough run chase against Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Match 26 of IPL 2026 on Saturday, April 18, he had to leave his batting midway. As it turned out, RCB's Krunal Pandya showed great sportsmanship and helped Axar off the field along with Ashutosh Sharma.
Akshar scored 26 runs in just 19 balls and along with other batsmen brought DC very close to victory. However, the star all-rounder had to abandon his batting due to cramps. With the DC team's physiotherapist unavailable, the RCB team's physiotherapist was seen taking care of Akshar who was struggling with pain. As a result, Krunal and Ashutosh extended their support to the Gujarat cricketer by taking him off the field.
However, thanks to a brilliant half-century from Tristan Stubbs, DC managed to win the thrilling encounter with one ball to spare. David Miller (22 off 10), meanwhile, was the star with the bat for his brief cameo, which included a couple of sixes and a four in the last over, swinging things completely in the visitors' favor as they won by six wickets.
Earlier in the run chase, KL Rahul Along with a brilliant half-century, he also shone with the bat. His innings kept DC in the race, and the birthday boy was also involved in a vital partnership with other top-order batsmen to keep the innings going well. Acting as the stand-in captain in Axar's unavailability, Rahul also showed his raw thoughts on the win.
Rahul said after the match, “The wicket did spoil things early on. I could see that Virat and Phil Salt were not happy with the way the ball was coming. It was not easy for us, losing three wickets in the first six. So yes, I think it was all a very good game of cricket. (The plan after losing three quick wickets) The talk was to continue playing good cricket shots and see how we can hit boundaries and how we can put pressure on the bowlers. Can make.”
“We didn't want to go into our confines, and then the run rate keeps going up; it gets tougher and tougher towards the end. We saw that even when we bowled, there was a bit of reverse swing and the opposition had some good death bowlers as well. So we didn't want to take it too deep. We just wanted to be in the moment, take one over at a time and try to put pressure on the bowlers. And yes, he hit some good shots. I hit some good shots. Shots. As That it turned out, it went pretty deep,” he added.
However, Axar's injury is not serious and the Capitals captain is expected to lead them in the next match as well. However, an official announcement regarding his recovery is currently awaited.
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