IPL 2022: KL Rahul hits fifty vs KKR, joins David Warner in elite list

KL Rahul, the captain of the Lucknow Super Giants, brought his half-century in 41 balls against the Kolkata Knight Riders at the DY Patil Stadium, Navi Mumbai on Wednesday. 

During the knock, Rahul surpassed the 500-run mark this season. He is now the second player after Delhi Capitals’ David Warner – former Sunrisers Hyderabad captain – to achieve the feat in five successive seasons. The Aussie has done it in six. 

Other players to score more than 500 runs in five seasons, not successive, are former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. 

Most 500+ run seasons in IPL:

6 D Warner

5 V Kohli/ S Dhawan/ KL Rahul

After chosing to bat first, KL Rahul with his opening partner clobbered the KKR bowlers all over the park. Their partnership had crossed 140 runs by the end of the 16th over. It was the highest opening stand against the Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL history. 

While Rahul was playing patiently at one end, De Kock was the aggressor. The Protea reached his second IPL century in 59 balls. 

All bowlers except Sunil Narine faced the heat. The West Indies bowling all-rounder finished his spell of four overs with 27 runs. 

Chosing to bat first, Rahul, at the toss said that the team needs to start afresh after facing two consecutive defeats. 

“We have to be positive, we’ve done really well in the tournament. We need to start afresh, try to win this game and enjoy. We’ll focus all of our energy on this game. We do have quality in the middle-order, everyone’s experienced, you trust them to figure it out,” the LSG skipper said. 

Kolkata Knight Riders (Playing XI): Venkatesh Iyer, Abhijeet Tomar, Shreyas Iyer(c), Nitish Rana, Sam Billings(w), Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine, Umesh Yadav, Tim Southee, Varun Chakaravarthy

Lucknow Super Giants (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), KL Rahul(c), Evin Lewis, Deepak Hooda, Manan Vohra, Marcus Stoinis, Jason Holder, Krishnappa Gowtham, Mohsin Khan, Avesh Khan, Ravi Bishnoi