The score read 2/3 after just eight balls into the IPL 2026 match between the Delhi Capitals and Royals Challengers Bengaluru. It looked more like a football scoreline than a cricket scorecard. And it did not stop there!
By the time the powerplay was done, Delhi Capitals, who were put into bat after RCB won the toss, were looking down the barrel at 13/6 – the lowest score ever in powerplay in IPL history. The wreckers-in-chief Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood scalped three wickets apiece.
A brief 35-run partnership off 31 balls between Impact Player Abhishek Porel and veteran David Miller (19) restored some sanity in the Delhi Capitals camp. The latter, in the process, went past 12,000 T20 runs – Quinton de Kock and Faf du Plessis are the two other South Africans to achieve that milestone.
However, Miller fell to a rush of blood just before the strategic timeout, attacking a short ball outside off by Rasikh Salam and offering wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma a regulation catch.
The DC were, at one time, in real danger of being bowled out for the lowest score in IPL history – 49 all out, recorded by RCB against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in 2017. RCB were bowled out in just 9.4 overs, failing to chase 132, setting the record for the lowest team total in a completed innings.
Porel (30), however, dropped anchor, while Kyle Jamieson – playing his first match for his new franchise this season – delayed the inevitable with a 13-ball 12. The former managed to guide the DC to 75 in 16.3 overs, before falling to Hazlewood, who returned after the second timeout to pick up his fourth wicket.
It was the Capitals’ third-lowest score in the IPL.