Delhi Capitals stunned by Hazlewood’s ‘triple strike’…wreaked havoc with test match length balls, which will be remembered for years

New Delhi. In the 39th match of IPL 2026, a storm named Josh Hazlewood came at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, which completely devastated the batting order of Delhi Capitals. This Australian fast bowler of Royal Challengers Bangalore wreaked havoc with his ‘Test match length’ balls on his home ground in Delhi, which will be remembered for years. Hazlewood’s fiery balls were such that Delhi Capitals registered the most embarrassing powerplay record in IPL history.

Josh Hazlewood looked very aggressive from the beginning of the match. He made Delhi captain KL Rahul his victim on the very first ball of the second over of the innings. There has been an old war between Rahul and Hazlewood, where before this match, Hazlewood had dismissed him thrice in T20. As soon as Rahul was out, there was silence in the Delhi camp, but the real drama was yet to come.

On the very next ball (1.2 overs), Hazlewood trapped Sameer Rizvi in ​​his net. He bowled an accurate good length ball on the ‘Channel of Uncertainty’ (just outside the off stump), which took a slight turn and came out. Rizvi made the mistake of playing the drive away from the body and the ball took the outer edge of his bat and went straight into the gloves of wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. Hazlewood was on a hat-trick and Delhi’s score was just a few runs for 2 wickets.

Fear and historical record of ‘Josh’ in powerplay
Hazlewood did not stop here. In his next spell, he also showed the way to the pavilion to Nitish Rana. In 3.5 overs, he bowled a clever short pitch ball which came straight to Rana’s body. Rana looked completely uncomfortable with the speed of the ball and the ball hit his gloves and went to Devdutt Padikkal standing in the gully.

The result of Hazlewood’s lethal bowling was that Delhi Capitals made the lowest score in IPL history in the powerplay (1-6 overs). Delhi team scored only 13 runs after losing 6 wickets in the first 6 overs. Earlier this shameful record was in the name of Rajasthan Royals, who had scored 14 runs against Bengaluru in 2009. By breaking that 17 year old record, Delhi set an unwanted record which no team would like to remember.

Hazlewood’s dominance in statistics
Hazlewood’s line and length in the match were so accurate that Delhi’s batsmen were yearning for one run each. While Trent Boult (32 wickets) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (29 wickets) top the list of bowlers taking most wickets in the first over of IPL, Hazlewood today showed how dangerous he can prove to be with the new ball. His upper hand against KL Rahul has now become heavier, because he has now sent Rahul to the pavilion for the fourth time in 12 innings.

This match not only strengthened RCB’s position in the points table of IPL 2026, but also put Josh Hazlewood at the forefront in the race for the Purple Cap. It was a nightmare for the Delhi fans, where their entire team fell like a pack of cards in front of the lethal bowling of RCB and especially the ‘Josh’ of Josh Hazlewood. This score of 6 wickets for 13 runs has now been recorded at the top among the dark chapters of IPL.