On April 10, Axar Patel made some major waves in IPL history. He became the first captain of the Delhi Capitals to bag four wins right off the bat in a season. This is a big deal, especially since he knocked Virender Sehwag’s record of three straight wins out of the park. Back in 2009, during the IPL that played out entirely in South Africa, Sehwag had led the Capitals to win those initial three matches.
Fast forward to 2025, Axar, who’s 31 and hails from Gujarat, stepped up to lead the team after being picked as the captain. So far, he’s steered the Delhi-based squad to victory in all four games they’ve played. His latest win came against the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, where the team secured a solid six-wicket victory.
Axar kicked off his captaincy journey on March 24 with a nail-biting win by just one wicket against the Lucknow Super Giants at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. He followed that up with a much more convincing performance against Sunrisers Hyderabad, taking them down by seven wickets in their second match.
Then came the clash with Chennai Super Kings on April 5 in Chennai, where the Capitals came out on top by 25 runs. But the real star of the show during the RCB match was KL Rahul. The 32-year-old wicketkeeper-batter walked into bat at number four when the team was chasing 164 runs. He put on an incredible display, scoring an unbeaten 93 runs off 53 balls, hitting seven fours and six sixes along the way.
Rahul formed a fantastic partnership with Tristan Stubbs, adding a whopping 111 runs for the fifth wicket. This partnership not only helped secure the win but also set a new record for the highest fifth-wicket stand in IPL history for the Delhi Capitals. The previous record was held by JP Duminy and Ross Taylor, who managed 110 runs back in 2014 against RCB in Sharjah.
On the flip side, RCB’s loss in this match marked their 45th defeat at their home ground, the M Chinnaswamy Stadium. No other team has faced as many losses at a single venue in the IPL, which is kind of surprising. In comparison, the Delhi Capitals have racked up 44 defeats at Arun Jaitley Stadium, and the Kolkata Knight Riders are sitting at 38 losses at Eden Gardens. It shows how each venue has its stories and stats in the grand scheme of the league!
