The 56th match was played between two of the most successful teams in the current season of IPL. The Royal Challengers Bangalore is the third team listed at the points table while the Delhi Capitals stays at the top.
Also, the last fixture between the two teams at the league stage made it a special encounter between the two teams. The Red Army led by Virat Kohli won the toss and challenged Pant’s Blue Army to bat first.
Kohli had elected to field first as he thought the pitch looks “a bit dry”, and he expected it to settle later in the game and for the ball to come on to the bat better.
A promising start by Shaw & Dhawan
The blue army being asked to bat first accepted the challenge with a smile. Both the openers for Delhi Capitals were seen to be firm and composed since the beginning. It was a matter of concern for Kohli and co. as DC had a fabulous beginning with the bat despite such dry conditions of the pitch.
Harshal Patel from RCB struck during the 11th over taking down the dangerous-looking Shikhar Dhawan leaving Delhi at 88 runs. He scored 43 runs from 35 balls with a strike rate of 122.85. He built his innings beautifully hitting three 4s and two 6s.
On the other hand, it was Prithvi Shaw who was playing brave and bold but getting caught at 48. Yuzvendra Chahal was the man behind Shaw’s dismissal.
After Shaw’s dismissal, Rishab Pant took the guards but could not carry on further thus failing during the 13th over.
Shreyas Iyer and Shimron Hetmyer from DC however took the responsibility and with their sensible batting but also getting out later took their team to 164/5 at the end of 20 overs with a run rate of 8.2.
During the first innings, Mohammed Siraj was particularly great with the ball for RCB. He took two vital wickets for RCB during the phase when a partnership was building between Iyer and Hetmyer and both were looking very dangerous for RCB.
Siraj in his four overs took two wickets giving away only 25 runs at an incredible economy of 6.25.
RCBs middle-order doing the job smoothly
The star openers for RCB started their chase quite shakily. The dismissal of Padikkal at duck during the fifth bowl of the second innings came as a shock for the red army.
Anrich Nortje the extreme-pacer struck for the Blue Army during the first over sending the dangerous young Padikkal back to the pavilion very early.
Nortje was particularly superb with his pace bowling where he had bowled four overs giving away only 24 runs at an economy of just 6 and also taking the wicket of both the openers for RCB.
Nortje struck again during his second spell of bowling and thus sending away the mighty Kohli back to the stands.
After that, it was particularly KS Bharat and Glenn Maxwell who did the job for RCB along with the vital 26 runs from 26 balls innings by Mr.360 – AB de Villiers.
With the clash of the opening unit and with a target of 165 to chase, RCB was seen to be building itself back from the damages that were costing them heavily.The young Bharat with his aggressive approach hit all around punishing every bowler that he came across.
It was during the 10th over when Axar Patel from DC sent AB back to the Pavillion through a bold dismissal.After AB it was Maxwell who took the stunts for the Challengers. Right after Maxwell came to the middle it was a great show of responsible yet powerful batting from both the show stoppers.
Nortje bowled the 19th over giving away only four runs thus leaving the challengers with 15 more runs to win off the last over.
Starting the 20th over with a four by Maxwell, both Bharat and Maxwell did it for RCB during the last ball of the second innings with an incredible sixer. Both remained unbeaten at 78* and 51* and finishing the game in style.
This win must have boosted RCB’s confidence to a lot more extent right before they entered into the Play-offs.
DC must be looking at all the things that went wrong and how they come up well for the next vital encounters.