The 56th match of the IPL 2021 saw Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) taking on Delhi Capitals (DC) in Dubai. Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bowl first. Both the teams went in unchanged for this encounter.
DC openers Shikhar Dhawan (43) and Prithvi Shaw (48) added 88 runs for the first wicket. Shimron Hetmyer (29) managed to give the DC team a good finish while Rishabh Pant with 10 and Shreyas Iyer with 18 contributed to the final total of 164/5. Mohammed Siraj picked 2/25 for RCB.
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In reply, DC got the best start as Nortje removed Padikkal for a golden duck and then had Virat Kohli caught for 4 runs. AB de Villiers tried his best with 26 runs, but it was no.3 batter KS Bharat and Glenn Maxwell, who added 111* runs for the fourth wicket.
While Maxwell remained unbeaten on 51 with 8 fours off 33 balls, it was Bharat who got all the accolades as he made 78* in 52 balls with 3 fours and 4 sixes. One of those sixes came off the last ball of the 20th over bowled by DC’s Avesh Khan with RCB needing 5 to win.
RCB won the match by 7 wickets and finished 3rd on the points table with 9 wins in 14 matches. They will play KKR in the eliminator on October 11 in Sharjah. DC will face CSK in the first qualifier on October 10 in Dubai.
The cricket fraternity lauded KS Bharat’s match-winning knock for RCB on Twitter and here are some of the best tweets.
