Rahul and Rana put on 220, the second-biggest stand in IPL history, and Kohli-de Villiers escape by nine
KL Rahul and Nitish Rana spent the best part of an evening in Delhi rewriting parts of the IPL record book that have stood since 2016. Their 220-run stand for the second wicket against Punjab Kings is now the second-biggest partnership in the league's history. Only one pair has done better, and that pair sits ahead by the slimmest of margins.
The number that survived was 229. Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers put it on for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Gujarat Lions in May 2016, and for nearly a decade it has been the partnership everyone else gets measured against. Rahul and Rana, on a day when Delhi Capitals scored 264 for 2 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, fell nine runs short of getting there.
A second-wicket stand that almost ran out of overs
Rahul came in early, after Pathum Nissanka went, and never really stopped. His 152 not out off 67 balls is now the highest score by an Indian batter in the IPL. Rana, who has spent most of this season looking like a top-three batter, played the ideal foil. His 91 came off 44 balls and ended only when he was caught at mid-off by Shreyas Iyer off Xavier Bartlett.
By the time Rana fell, Delhi had moved past 240. Rahul still had a few overs to keep him close to the Kohli-de Villiers mark, but the strike rotated, the boundaries came in clusters rather than steadily, and Punjab managed to slip a couple of dot balls in. Rahul ended on 152 not out. The partnership, in the books, reads 220, the second-highest the IPL has ever seen.
Where it sits on the all-time list
Above them, in cold print, only Kohli and de Villiers from that 2016 Bengaluru night against Gujarat Lions. Below them, a list of stands from the league's biggest names: Warner-Bairstow at Hyderabad, Rohit-Pollard at Wankhede, openers from various seasons who put on 200-plus and called it a night. Rahul and Rana have walked into that list at No. 2 on the strength of one chase-able afternoon.
Punjab Kings still pulled off the chase, 265 in 18.5 overs, the highest successful chase in T20 history, which is its own conversation. But in terms of the IPL's books, this was the day a Delhi opener and a former Kolkata Knight Rider got within nine runs of a partnership record almost everyone had stopped expecting to see beaten.
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