New Delhi: Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood produced a new-ball masterclass to demolish the Delhi Capitals’ batting line-up in Match 39 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. Opting to bowl first, RCB got into gear straightaway through Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who cleaned up debutant Sahil Parakh on the second ball of the game.
Josh Hazlewood got into the act in the next over and got rid of last game’s centurion, KL Rahul, for 1, and followed it up with a big wicket of Smaeer Rizvi on the very next ball. Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar continued from where he left off in the next over, accounting for the wickets of Tristan Stubbs and Axar Patel, leaving DC five down for 8 in four overs.
Hazlwood piled more misery on the home side with the sixth wicket of the innings, dismissing Nitish Rana and leaving the hosts tottering at 6 in four overs.
David Miller and Abishek Porel negotiated the next two overs cautiously, but couldn’t save DC from registering the lowest powerplay score in IPL history.
Lowest Powerplay scores in IPL
13/6 – DC vs RCB, Delhi, 2026*
14/2 – RR vs RCB, Cape Town, 2009
14/3 – SRH vs RR, Pune, 2022
15/2 – CSK vs KKR, Kolkata, 2011
16/1 – CSK vs DD, Raipur, 2015
16/1 – CSK vs RCB, Chennai, 2019
Both Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood bowled with superb control and got assistance from the track by operating with immaculate line and length. Both new-ball bowlers bagged three wickets each.