IPL 2025: Skipper Ajinkya Rahane's injury to be assessed by KKR medical staff

On the first delivery of the 12th over of the second innings, Rahane, stationed at short cover, was struck on the hand by a ball fired away by Faf du Plessis off Andre Russell. The ball deflected for a single, but Rahane received medical attention off the ground and didn't take the field for the rest of the fixture.

He remained a spectator with his hand heavily strapped. Venkatesh Iyer, Rahane's deputy, was swapped for Vaibhav Arora, and Knight Riders veteran spinner Sunil Narine was tasked to lead the side in the remaining overs. Rahane made an appearance during the post-match presentation, played down the extent of his injury, and said, "Not bad. I will be okay. I will be fine."

KKR spokesperson told ESPNcricinfo that the initial assessment indicated Rahane's injury wasn't serious. But on Wednesday morning, Prasanth Panchada will check the seasoned batter.

After the coin spun in DC's favour and the Riders were put to bat, Rahane was swift in his approach but lost in the battle of captains. A slider on the leg from Axar Patel's fingers stayed straight and trapped the KKR captain right in front of the stumps, ending his quick-fire outing on 26(14).

With Rahane back in the dugout, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (44) and Rinku Singh (36) chipped in with handy contributions to propel the defending champions to a daunting 204/9. In reply, Faf du Plessis (62), Axar (43) and Vipraj Nigam (38) fought valiantly, but their efforts went in vain.

Rahane identified Narine's final two overs as the game-changing moment of the run-fest, "204 on that wicket was good, but I thought we were 15 runs short, frankly. We were going really well as a batting unit. But again, you're chasing 204, you know, as a fielding team, you are one or two wickets away, and that's what happened."

With KKR dwindling at the seventh spot, with nine points out of ten fixtures, Rahane believes that his side could draw inspiration from their late run to the playoffs in 2021 and said, "That's always been the talk when we are not doing well. But again, it's in the past. For us, what's important is staying in the moment, taking confidence from this game and moving forward."