Delhi Capitals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 59 runs and sits on top of the table with 8 points in five games. RCB stays in third place with 6 points in five games.
Virat Kohli won the toss and elected to field first, but Delhi Capitals proved him wrong by scoring mammoth 196/4 in 20 overs. Royal Challengers fell apart in a big chase, they managed to score just 137/9 in 20 overs.
Delhi opening duo Dhawan & Shaw off to a great start, in-form Prithvi Shaw scored 42 runs in just 23 balls with the help of five 4’s and two 6’s before falling to new Challenger Mohammed Siraj in 7th over.
Dhawan (32 runs in 28) and Pant (37 runs in 25) not able to capitalize solid start, Marcus Stoinis blistering knock of 53 not out in 26 balls helped Delhi to push the total to 196.
Chasing big target of 197, Royal Challengers batsmen felt the pressure of big required run rate and lost wickets in regular intervals against very good Delhi bowling line-up. Only Virat Kohli managed to resist Delhi bowlers for few overs ,he scored 43 runs in 39 balls.
Delhi bowlers done exceptionally well except Harshit Patel. South African bowling duo Rabada & Nortje set the tone up front with the new ball before Spinners R Ashwin and Axar Patel done the damage.
Rabada continued his impressive form with claiming 4 wickets today, he finished game with 4-0-24-4 figures. Nortje complemented his fellow country man with 4-0-22-2, Axar Patel was unplayable, he finished game with 4-0-18-2.
Post-Match comments:
Axar Patel, the Man of the Match:
“The way the wicket was, I knew it was holding up. So I was ready to bowl in the Powerplay. And you can see the results for yourself. I spoke to the batsmen who told me it was stopping at them. So my plan was to bowl my stock ball, but bowl them within the stumps and also keep changing the pace. I was looking to defend when I just started, but when the third ball turned, I changed gears and got into attack mode.”
Shreyas Iyer, Captain of Delhi Capitals:
“Getting four out of five, I will take that any day. Kudos to the boys. Also the temperament shown in pressure situations. Strategy was to play with freedom and be fearless. We have got good youngsters in our team who are filled with energy. Just that we have to go out and execute our talent and skill. It is really important for us to get good recovery after the games. It is not easy when you are in the bio bubble. WE try to get into team activities and get to know each other well. It is really saddening when your senior-most player who has been doing so well misses out. We will miss him, but we have got good replacements as well.”
Virat Kohli, Captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore:
“It didn’t go our way. They got off to a great start, in the next eight we pulled them back, but the last chase got away from us. As I said, we need to grab important chances. It is not like we are dropping half chances, but sitters. Again the execution at the end was not spot on. Chris was really close to playing today but he didn’t rally make it. We have four days before the next game so hopefully he will be ready. The good thing is, we have won three out of five. We know we are playing good cricket. We just need to be professional in those big moments. The conversation around chasing has been to have one big partnership. Wtih dew setting in, if you have eight wicket sin hand in the last 10, the game is on even if you need 100 or more. DC are playing some really good cricket. Their batting is fearless. They have got pace, they have got good spinners. I won’t say they are unbeatable, but they will be hard to beat. Against this side, you have to bring your A game. We didn’t tonight.”
