Delhi Capitals could not bring Dushantha Chamera as a replacement for injured pacer Lungi Ngidi during their IPL 2026 match against Punjab Kings as IPL rules allowed only four foreign players in a match.Nagedi suffered a head injury while trying to catch Punjab Kings opener Priyansh Arya at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday and had to be taken off the field in an ambulance before being rushed to hospital.After the incident, Delhi Capitals brought in Vipraj Nigam as a concussion replacement instead of Sri Lankan pacer Chimera, raising questions as to why the fast bowling substitute was not used.DC Director of Cricket Venugopal Rao explained during the post-match press conference that the team had no option as they were already fielding four foreign players in the XI, the maximum allowed under IPL rules.Since Connection’s replacements also have to follow the same overseas player rule, Chimera could not be brought in as that would have taken the number of overseas players beyond four.Rao said that was the reason why the team had to go with Vipraj instead.He said that only four foreign players are allowed. There is a rule, we cannot take a fifth foreign player.Another reason was that Delhi had already used Aqib Nabi as their impact player during the match, further limiting their bowling options.Among the available players left in the 15-man squad, Vipraj was the only player who could bowl, although he is a spinner and not a fast bowler like Ngidi.Ngidi was trying to misjudge the path of the ball off Akshar Patel off Priyansh Arya on the third ball of the second over.The ball flew past his outstretched right hand as he was in the air and the South African hit the ground with the back of his head.He immediately held his head in pain as the medical staff came in with a stretcher. He was later taken to the hospital in an ambulance, while the Delhi Traffic Police created a green corridor to help the vehicle get through the traffic faster.The IPL later confirmed that Ngidi’s condition is stable and he will be discharged soon.Coming into the match, after DC elected to bat first, an entertaining 220-run stand for the second wicket between KL Rahul (152 off 67 balls, with 16 fours and nine sixes) and Nitish Rana (91 off 44 balls, with 11 fours and four sixes) took DC to 264/2.PBKS didn’t lay down their weapons either, as Priyansh Arya (43 off 17 balls, with two fours and five sixes) and Prabhasmaran (76 off 26 balls, with nine fours and five sixes) scored 116 runs in the powerplay, followed by Shreyas (71 off 36 balls and seven sixes, three sixes with Nehal). (25) and Shashank Singh (19) completed the chase with six wickets in 18.5 overs.
