Kohli puts up a strong knock as RCB accounts 2 more points

Royal Challengers Bangalore returned to winning ways as they thrashed Delhi Capitals by 23 runs at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday . Despite Kohli hitting his 47th century for the IPL side and a handful of other cameos in the 20s, RCB were restricted to 174/6 thanks to some excellent bowling from the Capitals, but they just didn’t come out with the bat.

DC’s top order crumbled against the RCB seamers, losing three wickets in the first 14 balls and their captain’s power play at the end to see the game and the overtime points quickly slip away. For Kohli and his men, this Victory was definitely required to gain some confidence after the recent close margin defeats that RCB had faced.

RCB get off to a great Start with Kohli’s 50, Middle Order Collapse yet again

DC quickly decided that acceleration might do the trick on this unnatural Chinnaswamy pitch and the three overs yielded just 16 runs. However, all three speeds leaked some limitations in their transmissions. Kohli started Anrich Nortje and Faf du Plessis replaced Mustafizur Rahman.

The skipper, who smoked Axar Patel under the cube, also opted to face Marsh but blasted one straight to midwicket where Aman Khan hit a superb one-handed catch from the right in the second attempt to lend RCB their first big. one effect 

With Kuldeep coming in just after the power play, DC used spin from both ends which slowed down RCB further. Kohli, who turned 36 when the Chinese bowler hit a difficult comeback opportunity, broke the shackles as soon as he saw the momentum return. Mustafizur was taken for four and then sent over fine leg for  six before Kohli reached his 47th IPL fifty in just 33 balls. Lomror ended the innings himself with  six  –  19 runs from his overs to take RCB to a robust 89/1 at the halfway mark. 

 Kohli’s goal came, not that DC was complaining. The former RCB captain, who led DC’s spin attack well, was finally bowled out by Lalit Yadav’s perfect slip at deep mid-on just after his half-century. The bowler wiped out penalty no. 4 Glenn Maxwell in two highs above the rest. But Marsh’s sharp appeal to stay in review ended Lomror’s comeback just as the batsman started to free his hands more often.  

 The most productive phase of the capital game was when they collected three consecutive wickets in two overs to rob RCB of all the momentum that went into the death overs. Axar, who was beaten by Maxwell and promoted Harshal Patel, was lucky when the umpire’s review of an impressive appeal against the latter brought back the decision.

Kuldeep then picked up two prized wickets in consecutive balls, prompting a googly at the top from Maxwell and batting specialist Dinesh Karthik to a first-ball pull to deep midwicket. RCB slipped from 132/3 to 132/6 in the 15th over. Only an expensive penultimate over from Mustafizur took them to 174, which proved to be quite enough in the end.

Power Play Bowlers strike Early and RCB dominates the game thereafter

Three wickets in as many overs  was as good a start as RCB could have hoped for. Prithvi Shaw was the object of influence for DC and his RCB counterpart was nullified by a crisp direct hit. Anuj Rawat nailed that pitch over the non-striker’s head to send Shaw for a duck off the second ball as the batsman pushed the ball into the covers for a single.

Four balls in, Marsh grabbed a lead from Wayne Parnell’s single. Later, Yash Dhull wasted a DRS review to be called LBW as DC fell to 2/3. David Warner’s little counterattack – Siraj’s hat-trick of boundaries – was ended early by RCB debutant Vijaykumar Vyshak, who mistimed the left-arm pull with his slower ball. 

 Axar’s entertaining cameo lasted 14 balls when he faced Wanindu Hasaranga but was outwitted by Vyshak’s bat. Manish Pandey also put it against the leg-spinner in the 14th over. 4th, 6th, 4th, 2nd innings to march from 37 to 50 with minimal applause and even minimalist celebrations. However, the Sri Lankan got the last laugh and was caught LBW next ball.

Vyshak consumed the second in the final over with a rope ball to complete a memorable debut with figures of 4-0-20-3. Reaching 110/8, Nortje hit four boundaries in his 14-ball 23* cameo to take it to the final. The final scorecard may look like DC fought back, but it never was after the infamous power play meltdown. 

 Now on a four-day break before chasing their  first points of the season, Delhi will return home to host Kolkata Knight Riders on April 20. Things will be busy for RCB when CSK visit on Monday April 17.