On-song Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) tame Delhi Capitals (DC) in Ahmedabad to register their fifth victory in six games this season. In what was a thrilling finish in the last ball, RCB thumped Delhi Capitals by just a run to register this amazing victory. Shimron Hetmyer scored a quick fifty but couldn’t take his team over the line as the slow-paced stat-padding innings from Rishabh Pant weighed down Capitals in this heavy run-chase.
Having opted to bowl first, Delhi bowlers did well to restrict the top order from scoring at a brisk rate. Virat Kohli (12 off 11) and Devdutt Padikkal (17 off 14) fell cheaply while Glenn Maxwell (25 off 20) couldn’t convert his start. Rajat Patidar (31 off 22) and AB de Villiers added 54 runs for the fourth wicket. Once Rajat departed, ABD (75* off 42) continued on his merry way to get RCB to 171/5 in 20 overs.
There was a captaincy error from the DC point of view as they failed to get Amit Mishra to bowl his fourth over. Incidentally, Marcus Stoinis who did not bowl in this match at all had to come and bowl the final over. And that final cost them 23 runs which turned out to be the difference between these two sides as RCB got to a good total!
Chasing 172 to win, Delhi Capitals lost Shikhar Dhawan (6 off 7) and Steven Smith (4 off 5) cheaply. Prithvi Shaw (21 off 18) and Marcus Stoinis (22 off 17) got starts but couldn’t convert them! In the midst of all this, Rishabh Pant had unnecessarily blocked too many deliveries. Even though he finished his innings with an unbeaten 58* off 48 deliveries, he was, at one stage, batting on 42 off 41 deliveries.
Shimron Hetmyer who walked into the middle in the 13th over, played a cameo scoring an unbeaten 53* off 25 deliveries with 2 fours and 4 sixes. However, his knock was not sufficient as Pant had already eaten away too many deliveries! In the end, Delhi were restricted by RCB to 170/4 in 20 overs to register a 1-run victory. Harshal Patel was once their pick of the bowlers with 2/37 in his 4 overs.
AB de Villiers who had driven RCB to this match-winning total has been adjudged as the Player of the Match. With this 1-run victory, Royal Challengers Bangalore moved to the top of the points table while Delhi Capitals are currently stationed at third place in the list.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore – 171/5 in 20 overs (AB de Villiers – 75*, Avesh Khan – 1/24) defeated Delhi Capitals – 170/4 in 20 overs (Rishabh Pant – 58*, Harshal Patel – 2/37) by a margin of 1 run.
Toss: Delhi Capitals won the toss and opt to bowl first
Teams:
Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant (c & wk), Steven Smith, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra, Kagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, Avesh Khan
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers (wk), Washington Sundar, Daniel Sams, Kyle Jamieson, Harshal Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Mohammed Siraj
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