Rahul and Kumar lead Delhi to 8-wicket win over Lucknow in IPL

LUCKNOW, India (AP) — Lokesh Rahul anchored Delhi Capitals to an emphatic eight-wicket win over his former franchise Lucknow Super Giants and reached the 5,000-run mark in Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Rahul made an unbeaten 57 off 42 balls with three fours and three sixes as Delhi romped to 161-2 in 17.5 overs and joined Gujarat Titans atop the points table with 12 points from six wins.

Opener Abishek Porel made 51 off 36 balls in Delhi’s aggressive run-chase as off-spinner Aiden Markram claimed both wickets for 30 runs.

Earlier, Lucknow couldn’t capitalize on Markram (52) and Mitchell Marsh’s (45) 87-run opening stand off 60 balls and was restricted to 159-6 with fast bowler Mukesh Kumar returning with impressive figures of 4-33.

With five wins and four defeats Lucknow is at No. 5 on the table.

Rahul was unavailable when Delhi recorded a thrilling one-wicket win over Lucknow earlier this season, but he controlled the chase well with captain Axar Patel in his first game since parting ways with his former franchise.

Rahul became the quickest batter to complete 5,000 runs in the IPL as he reached the landmark in 130 innings. David Warner held the previous record of completing the milestone in 135 innings.

After losing Karun Nair to Markram in the fourth over of the run-chase, Rahul revived the chase with Porel. They countercharged against leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi as Porel raised his first half-century of the season off 33 balls.

With 55 needed off the 49 balls, Patel smashed four sixes in his unbeaten 34 off 20 balls and Rahul completed his half-century off 40 balls to guide Delhi home.

Markram and Mitchell had provided Lucknow a solid platform in the first half of the innings despite Patel (0-29) bowling four steady overs of his left-arm spin on the trot with the new ball.

"In the powerplay we didn’t take a wicket but we kept it under control,” Patel said. “I had an injury issue earlier that hampered my bowling, (but) now I’m better and I took on the responsibility of bowling in the powerplay.”

Markram was more aggressive than Mitchell, hitting three sixes and two boundaries, before Dushmanta Chameera of Sri Lanka, playing his first game of the season, had him caught in the deep in the 10th over.

Kumar clean bowled Marsh with a superb yorker and also removed Abdul Samad, who struggled to keep the momentum going and fell for 2. Lucknow’s in-form batter Nicholas Pooran was undone by Mitchell Starc’s slow short ball and was bowled for nine.

Kumar then returned for the final over and clean bowled Ayush Badoni (36), and captain Rishabh Pant’s below-par season continued when he was out for duck as he dragged the ball back onto his stumps while going for a reverse lap shot against the fast bowler.

Pant surprisingly demoted himself until the fifth wicket fell with two balls left in the innings. The left-hander missed the first ball he faced from Kumar before he got dismissed in a bizarre fashion.

“We were 20 runs short,” Pant said. “Whoever is bowling first gets a lot of help from the wicket … it always happens in Lucknow, wicket becomes better in the second innings.”

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Lucknow Super Giants' Ayush Badoni plays a shot during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Lucknow Super Giants' David Miller, left, and Ayush Badoni encourages each other as they bat during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Delhi Capitals' Mukesh Kumar celebrates with Mitchell Starc the wicket of Lucknow Super Giants' Ayush Badoni during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Delhi Capitals' Mukesh Kumar celebrates the wicket of Lucknow Super Giants' captain Rishabh Pant during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Lucknow Super Giants' captain Rishabh bowled out by Delhi Capitals' Mukesh Kumar during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Delhi Capitals' captain Axar Patel, left, and KL Rahul celebrates after winning the Indian Premier League cricket match against Lucknow Super Giants at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Delhi Capitals' captain Axar Patel, left, and KL Rahul encourages each other as they bat during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

Delhi Capitals' KL Rahul celebrates after scoring fifty runs during the Indian Premier League cricket match between Lucknow Super Giants and Delhi Capitals at Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)