Delhi Capitals beat Lucknow Super Giants by 8 wickets at Ekana Cricket Stadium, with 13 balls remaining. Mukesh Kumar, Mitchell Starc, KL Rahul, and Abhishek Porel stood out for Axar Patel's side as they laid down a heavy-handed challenge to the home team. KL Rahul has been a hot topic of discussion in sport over a period now. Once, he was a mere shadow for LSG, who soon found himself in dire situations after his public spat with team owner Sanjiv Goenka. The moment between the two heated after a wrap against Sunrisers Hyderabad saw the LSG face released from the roster ahead of the IPL 2025 mega auction. Rahul didn't have a chance to go to Vizag to play against LSG as he was busy celebrating the birth of his first child. He made sure to make his presence felt in Lucknow, where he crossed the magical number of 5000 IPL runs. The fastest ever to do so with his third half-century of the season. Unbeaten in the chase, this was his second finish in four for Delhi. Karun Nair provided a vital powerplay contribution, albeit for a brief period. Rahul took the reins after setting the target at 160. He first allowed Porel to set the pace, followed by fireworks from Axar Patel. Rahul anchored the innings and did not invite any trouble and saw the finish. It's important to note that Rahul's T20 style has undergone a change. Now coming in at No. 4, he has moved away from being an anchor to absorbing pressure and attacking as needed from time to time. He counter-attacked SRH, paced his innings against RCB, and settled the chase against LSG. Different roles, among many other match-winners. Also Read | IPL 2025: LSG vs DC Clash Sparks Frenzy on Twitter KL Rahul states while chasing in IPL 2025: Against Runs Balls Average Strike Rate SRH 15 5 15 300 RCB 93 53 – 175.47 MI 15 13 15 115.4 LSG 57 42 – 135.71 180 113 90 159.29 The victory was not only for Rahul. The bowlers had a brilliant outing for Delhi. The bowlers from Delhi restricted LSG to 159 runs on a beautiful day due to some disciplined spells from Axar, Starc, Mukesh, and Chameera. Axar bowled economically while Starc removed Nicholas Pooran and Chameera plucked out LSG's top scorer, Aiden Markram, from the lineup. Mukesh Kumar was the actual change maker. He bagged his maiden four-wicket haul in his career by dismissing Marsh, Samad, Badoni, and Pant-four out of a total of six wickets that went down. It was his tight bowling that never let LSG's momentum build and completely changed the complexion of a match that was being dominated by DC.