IPL 2026 DC vs PBKS – ‘Had to work on my sixes’ – KL Rahul after record-breaking 152*

“There is no time in T20 cricket to say ‘later’,” Rahul told the broadcasters after the match. “There’s time in one-day cricket to say, okay, maybe I can hold out for a few overs and attack at the back, but as an opener playing T20 cricket, that’s something I’ve learned from the other guys who are playing international cricket and have been successful, that there’s no time for you to think, okay, next over I’m going to go.”

Rahul added that he compared his batting with the best in the world and realized that six shots must become a priority. He hit nine sixes along with 16 fours on Saturday and maintained a strike rate of 227. No surprise then that it was Rahul’s fastest IPL century (47 balls), shaving nine deliveries off his previous fastest.

“Just had to step back a bit and see where the T20 game has gone, and what the demand of T20 cricket is in today’s time,” said Rahul. “Watching the T20 World Cup (Rahul was not part of India’s World Cup-winning squad), watching some of the young guys come in and bat from ball one.

“I talked about six-hitting, and that’s something I’ve really had to work on and give myself that kind of freedom to go out there and tackle the bowling from maybe ball one, ball two.”

“Honestly, I made up my mind towards the end. I was just in a mindset to hit boundaries and put pressure on the bowlers. My strength is always to play proper cricket shots and I tried to back that up and try to believe that it was good enough to get my team past 250.”

KL Rahul

“Honestly, I only made up my mind towards the end,” Rahul said. “I was just in a mindset to hit boundaries and put pressure on the bowlers. My strength is always to play proper cricket shots and I tried to back that up and try to believe that it was good enough to get my team past 250.

“When you (Rana) can hit proper cricket shots and get boundaries in the first six overs and keep doing that, then the bowling team feels a lot more pressure. The right and left hand combination worked. We kept batting and putting pressure on the bowlers.”

“Even in (Rahul’s) previous hundreds, it felt like there was something (unused) in the tank,” Dasgupta said. “But it was KL at 100%, and you couldn’t get anything more from him. We can talk about the dropped catch or the Punjab bowling effort, but his spatial awareness – the way he played the gaps – was incredible. He can turn a page in this innings and say ‘yes, I can play at this pace and not be a match-changer for him.