West Delhi Lions captain Nitish Rana delivered a sensational performance in the Delhi Premier League (DPL) 2025 eliminator, leading his team into Qualifier-2 with a blistering century against South Delhi Superstarz. Rana’s aggressive batting saw him reach the milestone in just 42 balls, punctuated by 15 towering sixes. This remarkable performance also involved a heated exchange with bowler Digvesh Rathi that nearly resulted in a physical confrontation, captured and circulated widely on social media.
The match, played at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi, began with South Delhi Superstarz scoring 201 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in their allotted 20 overs. West Delhi Lions then chased down the target with ease, winning with seven wickets in hand and 17 balls remaining. Rana’s dominant display saw him score an unbeaten 134 runs off 55 balls, including 8 boundaries and 15 sixes. He mercilessly attacked the South Delhi bowlers, including three consecutive sixes off Digvesh Rathi’s bowling, which resulted in the bowler conceding 20 runs in that over. Other notable contributions for West Delhi included 31 runs from Chris Yadav and an unbeaten 15 from Mayank Gosain. Sumit Kumar Beniwal took two wickets for South Delhi, with Aman Bharti claiming one.
Earlier in the innings, South Delhi Superstarz started strong with openers Ankur Kaushik (16) and Anmol Sharma forming a partnership of 67 runs. Sharma scored 55 runs, with 7 fours and 2 sixes. Captain Tejashwi Dahiya and Sumit Mathur provided further momentum. Dahiya scored 60 runs with 2 fours and 6 sixes, and Mathur remained unbeaten with 48 runs. Ritik Shaukin from West Delhi took two wickets, while Shubham Dubey, Shivank Vashisht, and Anirudh Chaudhary each took one wicket.