Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a crushing seven-wicket defeat at the hands of Delhi Capitals (DC) at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi on Saturday (May 6).
Chasing 182 to win, the Capitals got off to a blazing start as the duo of Phil Salt and skipper David Warner added 60 runs for the opening wicket in just five overs. While Warner got out after scoring 14-ball 22, Salt held the one end and took the RCB attack to the cleaners.
Salt stitched a 59-run stand for the second wicket with Mitchell Marsh (26) and followed it with another crucial partnership of 52 runs alongside Rilee Rossouw. Karn Sharma dismissed him in the 16th over but not before the right-handed opener slammed 87 off 45 balls (8 fours and 6 sixes) to put DC on the verge of victory.
In the end, Rossouw (35* off 22) and Akshar Patel (8*) completed the formalities and took the hosts over the finishing line with 20 deliveries to spare.
After the game, RCB captain Faf du Plessis said that DC broke the back of the stiff chase in the powerplay and pointed out that dew played a part in the second innings.
"I thought we were pretty close to par. We thought 185 is a good score. But there was a little bit of dew in the second innings. But we have to give credit to their batters, they played really well. The pressure their batters put on the spinners led to some mistakes," Du Plessis said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"We didn't maximise out innings. At about 12 overs, we felt like 185 was a par score. Obviously you like to have one of those big overs to take you to 200, which would have been a good score. But they made our bowlers sit back a little bit after the powerplay," he added.
Du Plessis felt the 82-run opening stand was a good foundation for Glenn Maxwell to come in at No. 3. However, the move backfired as Maxwell bagged a golden duck. Mahipal Lomror returned with a dazzling knock of 54* in 29 balls to propel RCB to a competitive total of 181/4.
"We felt that we had a good enough foundation for Maxi to come in at three. Very pleased to see Lomror come in at No. 5 and play really well. It was very positive for him. Just hope that at No. 3, someone puts their hands up and scores a lot of runs. They pretty much broke the back of the chase in the first six, the way they were going," the RCB skipper stated.
