Bengaluru, May 12 (IANS): Fast-bowlers Rasikh Salam (2-23) and Khaleel Ahmed (2-31) bowled brilliant spells for Delhi Capitals in restricting Royal Challengers Bengaluru to 187/9 at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday evening.
Pushed into batting first, RCB's innings was mainly around the 88-run partnership off 53 balls between Rajat Patidar and Will Jacks for the third wicket. Patidar went on to make 52, also his fourth fifty in the last five games. But Delhi Capitals, who dropped four catches, came back strongly in the last five overs, giving away 49 runs while taking five wickets to keep RCB below 200, which seemed to be a strong possibility at one point.
Taking the field with Axar Patel as captain and Rishabh Pant seeing from the dugout due to a one-game suspension, DC got success early when Faf du Plessis sliced Mukesh Kumar to 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 run-out on the last two balls of the innings where RCB attacked a lot despite their mainstays not firing.
Brief scores:
Royal Challengers Bengaluru 187/9 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 52, Will Jacks 41; Rasikh Salam 2-23, Khaleel Ahmed 2-31) against Delhi Capitals