KL Rahul slammed an unbeaten century in a must win game for Delhi Capitals (DC) against Gujarat Titans (GT) on Sunday and created multiple unique Indian Premier League (IPL) records.
Through his unbeaten 65-ball 112, Rahul became the first player to score centuries for three different teams in IPL. Before DC, Rahul had scored centuries for Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants. This is his first season with the Capitals and with this ton, he now has five IPL centuries. Only Virat Kohli (8), Jos Buttler (7) and Chris Gayle (6) have more in the league.
Enroute his century, Rahul also became the fastest Indian to reach 8000 T20 runs as he moved past Kohli. Only Chris Gayle (213) and Babar Azam (218) have got to the 8000-run mark in T20s quicker than Rahul who reached there in his 224th innings.
Interestingly, it was also the first century of the ongoing IPL season by a right hander. Before Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Priyansh Arya, Abhishek Sharma and Vaibhav Suryavanshi - all left handers- had scored centuries this season. The innings, where Rahul played 65 balls, was also the longest innings of the season. His 112 not out also becomes the highest individual score against GT.
The century was Rahul's seventh in T20 cricket, same as Abhishek Sharma and less than only Rohit Sharma (8) and Virat Kohli (9).
Rahul, who has consistently moved up and down in the DC batting order, came out to open against GT but could not get his team to a good start. Only 19 runs came off the first four overs where Rahul lost his opening partner Faf du Plessis.
Rahul got a move on in the fifth over where he smashed Kagiso Rabada for 17 runs. From there on, Rahul kept going and reached his century in the penultimate over. Riding on his 112 not out, DC posted 199/3 despite a slow start.
A loss against GT will make things really hard for the Capitals who currently are at the fifth place in the points table with 13 points from 11 matches.
