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The league stage of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2026 came to an end with the Delhi Capitals gaining two meaningless points in a dead rubber contest against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at the Eden Gardens in Match 70 of the tournament on Sunday, May 24. Monday will be a rest day in the tournament before the playoffs commence, with the top four already locked and loaded.

Tonight, the toss went in favour of the Knight Riders, as their skipper, Ajinkya Rahane, chose to field first. However, the decision backfired quite badly for them, as DC posted a mammoth total of 203-5 on the board, guided by KL Rahul's quickfire 60, a captain's knock by Axar Patel (39 off 25) and cameos towards the end by David Miller and Ashutosh Sharma. Saurabh Dubey (2-28) was the only bowler who impressed.

During the run chase, Rahane and Finn Allen went all guns blazing, but the latter was trapped by Lungi Ngidi with a brilliant delivery. Later, Manish Pandey once again tried to roll back the clock with the bat but failed to convert his start into a substantial knock, falling for 25 off 16. One followed another as Cameron Green also failed, sacrificing his wicket to Kuldeep Yadav.

Kuldeep was the most impressive bowler of the night for DC, who, apart from Green, also accounted for the dismissals of the KKR skipper and vice-captain Rinku Singh during the fourteenth over. He also created a hat-trick chance for himself, which went down begging. Towards the end, Mitchell Starc also showed his magic with a couple of wickets, while Lungi Ngidi also took three, including the last of Varun Chakravarthy that ended the proceedings at the Eden Gardens, resulting in a comprehensive 40-run win for the visitors. 

Both the teams had already been eliminated from the competition, and as a result, this game had become irrelevant within a few minutes of its commencement, as Rajasthan Royals made the final cut for the top four of the playoffs. The business end of the tournament will get underway on May 26, with Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Gujarat Titans playing the Qualifier 1 at the HPCA Stadium, Dharamshala.