Nitish Rana has finally broken free from the shackles of poor form as he took Punjab Kings pacer Xavier Bartlett to the cleaners on Saturday. After scoring just 77 runs in five matches for Delhi Capitals in the five games that he played for the franchise after moving from RR, the Delhi batter seems to have woken up from his slumber with yet another sublime knock. Rana slammed 28 runs against the Australian pacer, making it one of the most expensive overs in IPL 2026.
Nitish Rana wreaks havoc on Bartlett
It was in the 12th over of the innings when Nitish Rana decided to unleash himself on Bartlett. He dispatched the very first ball he faced to a six over deep mid-wicket with a wicked pull shot. What followed was four back-to-back boundaries which not only ensured that Rana reached his fifty, but also served as a huge shift in momentum for DC. Nitish signed off with a huge maximum off the final delivery of Bartlett’s over with a flat six over extra cover. To put it in numbers, Rana was 37 off 26 before that over and reached 65 off 32 after the six balls from Bartlett, striking at over 200.
While Rana reached his 22nd IPL half-century in the game against PBKS, he also clocked a 100-run partnership with KL Rahul, putting the team in the driver’s seat. Before the game on Saturday, the Delhi batter had registered scores of 15, 0, 5, and 57 in the four IPL 2026 games that he had featured in. Delhi Capitals captain Axar Patel won the toss and decided to bat first in the game against PBKS at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.
After a subpar IPL 2025 season for RR, Nitish Rana was traded to DC for Rs 4.20 crore. The batter was quite consistent in the league till 2023 following which he witnessed a dip in form due to injury and other reasons.
| Mat | Runs | HS | Ave | SR | 100s | 50s | 4s | 6s |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 123 | 2996 | 87 | 28.26 | 137.74 | 0 | 22 | 280 | 147 |
