An 88-run partnership off 53 balls for the third wicket between Rajat Patidar (52) and Will Jacks (41), along with Cameron Green’s 32 not out and left-arm pacer Yash Dayal’s 3-20 helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru beat Delhi Capitals by 47 runs to register their fifth successive win in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 and stay in contention for a Play-offs spot at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Sunday.
Pushed into batting first, DC dropped four catches as RCB stayed the course of playing attacking cricket. But the visitors came back strongly in the last five overs, giving away 49 runs while taking five wickets to keep RCB to 187/9, 13 runs below 200, which seemed to be a strong possibility at one point.
In reply, Dayal led a superb bowlers’ show on a slightly two-paced pitch to bowl out DC for 140. DC, playing without captain Rishabh Pant due to slow-over rate suspension, never recovered from the setback of losing four wickets in the Power-play. Stand-in skipper Axar Patel’s 57 off 39 balls kept DC in the hunt, but he found little support from other batters, as dropping four catches in the first innings came back to haunt them.
Moreover, DC were hurt by Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs’ runouts in the chase of 188. Sunday’s result means both RCB and DC are on 12 points, but the former are not in fifth place in the points table with a positive net run rate, as compared to the latter now in sixth position with a negative net run rate.
DC got success early when Faf du Plessis sliced Mukesh Kumar to a deep point in the third over. Virat Kohli was solid in his base and timing to hit four and three sixes in his 13-ball 27, before giving a healthy edge behind off Ishant Sharma. Patidar hit the ground running by creaming Mukesh Kumar for three boundaries, before slogging Axar over deep mid-wicket for six in the last over of power-play.
Patidar and Jacks then exclusively dealt in sixes off Axar and Kuldeep, while getting a life each off the latter in the ninth over. Jacks and Patidar were again given lives in a matter of two overs off Khaleel and Rasikh respectively.
Patidar brought up his fifty off 29 balls, before miscuing to extra-cover off Rasikh in the 13th over. Jacks was next to fall, as he hit straight to cover off Kuldeep. Cameron Green and Mahipal Lomror hit four boundaries collectively before Khaleel took the latter and Dinesh Karthik out in quick succession.
From there, DC applied more brakes on RCB’s innings as Impact Player Swapnil Singh heaved to deep backward square-leg off Rasikh, followed by Karn Sharma and Mohammed Siraj’s run-out on the last two balls of the innings.
DC didn’t have an ideal start to their chase as a returning David Warner hit straight to long-on off Swapnil in the opening over. It turned for worse as Dayal bounced out Abishek Porel off his first ball, while Fraser-McGurk, after hitting four boundaries, was run-out from the non-striker’s end as Dayal, in his follow-through, got a finger on the straight drive from Shai Hope to catch him out of the crease.
When Kumar Kushagra was trapped plumb lbw by Mohammed Siraj, DC were reduced to 30/4 in 3.3 overs. Hope launched a fightback by creaming Dayal for three fours, while Axar hit two boundaries off Siraj as DC ended the Power-play at 54/4. Though Axar hit some boundaries, RCB were able to keep DC on a leash.
That pressure to get big runs resulted in Hope going for a slog off a Lockie Ferguson full-toss, but he could only toe-end it towards deep mid-wicket. A miscommunication between Axar and Stubbs resulted in the latter being run out by a direct hit from Green at the bowler’s end. Axar continued to keep DC in the hunt by slog-sweeping Karn Sharma once and Jacks twice, leading to him reaching his second fifty of the season in 30 balls.
But DC’s hopes of chasing were dashed when Rasikh toe-ended a chip to long-on off Green and Axar’s heave resulted in a top-edge caught by tumbling backward point off Green. Ferguson and Dayal took out the remaining two wickets to ensure RCB gave its faithful fans lots of cheers.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 187/9 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 52, Will Jacks 41; Rasikh Salam 2-23, Khaleel Ahmed 2-31) beat Delhi Capitals 140 all out in 19.1 overs (Axar Patel 57; Yash Dayal 3-20, Lockie Ferguson 2-23) by 47 runs.