RCB slip up against an all-firing DC to fall short of the finish line

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) were handed their fifth defeat of the season as the Delhi Capitals’ batting unit powered the hosts to a commanding 7-wicket win at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. After a sturdy show with the bat in the first half to put up 181/4 on the board, things spiralled out of control for RCB with the ball as they conceded the loss to DC in just 16.4 overs. 

RCB won the toss and opted to bat first and maintaining the tradition of building a remarkable opening partnership, Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli got off the blocks nice and early. They took the Delhi bowling head-on as the RCB skipper chose to do the heavy lifting while Virat Kohli tagged along in fine fashion. 

The opening pair put on a 63-ball 82-run partnership in which Faf contributed 45 off 32 balls before the RCB skipper fell short of a well-deserved half-century. Glenn Maxwell couldn’t trouble the scorers at all as he nicked the first ball he faced to the keeper off Mitchell Marsh. 

However, turning the tide around in a scintillating fashion, Kohli carried on with his approach and he was joined by Mahipal Lomror, who took up the aggressor’s role and smacked the ball around the park. The Kohli-Lomror pair put up 55 runs for the third wicket post which the former walked back for a 46-ball 55, setting the platform for a grandstand finish.

The last four overs did produce 44 runs as Lomror stayed unbeaten till the very end for a 29-ball-54, smashing six fours and three sixes. Riding high on the youngster’s brilliance and a six each from Dinesh Karthik and Anuj Rawat, RCB managed to amass 181/4 from their quota of 20 overs.

Sadly, for the visitors, things went horribly down from there as the Delhi Capitals got off to a blistering start, with Phil Salt taking on the bowlers right from the get-go. Pairing perfectly with a vigilant David Warner, the opening pair of DC posted 60 runs before the ‘Bendemeer Bullet’, Josh Hazlewood, sent Warner back to the pavilion with skipper Faf taking a good high catch at mid-off. 

However, the blow did very little to dampen the hopes of the Capitals as first Marsh (17-ball 26) and then Rilee Rossouw (22-ball 35*) combined in perfect unison to unleash hell on the RCB bowling unit. The RCB bowlers had no answers to the Capitals’ batting onslaught, and eventually, the hosts got to the 182-run target in just 16.4 overs, with Salt’s 45-ball 87 emerging as the headline act for the home team.