KL Rahul gave it his all as he broke free from the shackles and carved his name into the record books with a historic 150 against Punjab Kings under the blazing afternoon sun at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
With temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Celsius, it was no surprise that Rahul looked completely exhausted when he came in for a mid-innings interview with Ravi Shastri. Even before the first question was properly asked, he was gasping for breath and trying to gather his words.
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“Yes, of course I’m happy that we could get 260, but the heat also took (its toll). I got a beating and I just need to hydrate and recover, so it’s mixed feelings at the moment. Yeah, I hope I don’t get cramps later,” Rahul said.
HEAT takes its toll
It was a rare flash of vulnerability from a batsman who had just produced one of the best knocks of his IPL career. Physically exhausted and visibly exhausted, Rahul still found room to appreciate Nitish Rana, whose partnership of 91 off 44 and 220 runs with him in just 96 balls tore Punjab Kings apart.
This physical toll became even more apparent once Delhi returned to the pitch. Rahul, who had already emptied himself with the bat and was now back behind the stumps, needed a physio’s attention during the chase in Punjab after looking visibly exhausted while keeping up in the oppressive Delhi heat.
Rahul was quick to credit Rana for setting the tone, stressing that their approach is rooted not in brute force but in clean, orthodox stroke play. On a surface that wasn’t the easiest to hit, the pair trusted timing, placement and clarity over reckless power and the rewards were extraordinary.
“Yeah, phenomenal knock from Nitish. I think the way he came, if you can hit the right cricket shots and get boundaries in the first six overs and keep going, I think the bowling team feels a lot more pressure,” he said.
At a time when reach and innovation often dominate the T20 conversation, Rahul’s innings stood out for its control and lucidity. It wasn’t a shift built on improvisation or desperation. It was created with rhythm, precision and a firm commitment to his strengths.
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“When you’re trying to hit big sixes or you’re trying to slap, the opposition always feel they’ve got a chance, but when you’re playing proper cricket and you’re playing for the value of the ball and you’re still getting boundaries and you’re still able to score over 200, the strike rate, it puts a lot of pressure on them and I think he did it beautifully and I think the slow left-arm combination worked well. side but, yeah, I think we’ve seen both the ball really well so we kept saving and kept putting pressure on the bowlers,” he said.
Rahul has often been criticized in the past for easing up after reaching the milestone or for allowing the pace to drop in the middle and death overs. This time there was no such slowdown. If anything, he accelerated faster.
The shift, Rahul revealed, came later in the innings. For most of his knock, he remained reactive and trusted his fundamentals. Only after he had spent enough time in the crease and had a clear idea of the bowlers’ patterns did he begin to anticipate and reason.
“Honestly, I think towards the end, I think I was thinking ahead at the start, I think the first 70-80 runs, I didn’t really anticipate it. I was just in the mindset of hitting boundaries and putting pressure on the bowlers and, you know, my strength is always playing the right cricket shots, and I tried to continue that and I tried well enough to get past 50 just on the back end I was thinking,” he said.
“And when the field is set, when the bowlers go for a wide yorker field, or a spinner field, you kind of know what to expect. And when you spend 30-40 balls in the middle, you start pre-thinking them,” he added.
At the end of it, Rahul not only played one of the great IPL innings but pushed himself to the brink of it. 150 was historic. The exhaustion that followed was a testament to how much it had taken from him.
With Rahul’s landmark, Delhi knocked off a daunting target of 265 runs for the Punjab Kings. The batsmen did their job. Now it was up to the bowlers to finish it off.
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Issued by:
Amar Panicker
Published on:
25 Apr 2026 17:58 IST
