Delhi Capitals have stretched their Indian Premier League winning streak to four games with a six-wicket victory, handing Royal Challengers Bengaluru a second home defeat at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Bengaluru wasted opener Phil Salt’s quickfire 37 off 17 balls and was restricted to 7-163 on Thursday.
Wrist spinners Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav picked up four wickets for just 35 runs in their combined eight overs.
Aussie pacemen Mitch Starc and Josh Hazlewood — on opposing sides playing for the Capitals and Challengers respectively — did not fare so well.
Between them, they bowled half-a-dozen overs, didn’t get a sniff of a wicket and were carted around for 75 runs at 12-and-a-half an over.
Starc’s figures ended up at 3-0-35-0 and Hazlewood’s 3-0-40-0, with Starc being plundered for 30 runs in a disastrous single, seven-ball over as England’s Phil Salt went to town on the Aussie quick.
Despite that, it was Starc who would have come away feeling slightly better with his day though after teammate Lokesh Rahul followed his 77 against Chennai Super Kings with another masterful unbeaten 93 off 53 balls as he led Delhi to 4-169 with more than two overs to spare.
KL Rahul led Delhi to victory over the Royal Challengers Bengaluru at his home stadium in Bengaluru. (AP Photo: Aijaz Rahi)
Rahul soaked up the pressure of losing early wickets before counterpunching in the second half of Delhi’s impeccable run-chase.
Faf du Plessis scored only two off seven balls against his former franchise. Jake Fraser-McGurk (7) and Abishek Porel (7) went cheaply, skying catches to wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma off Kumar’s short balls, while captain Axar Patel (15) was taken at long-off as Delhi’s chase got derailed in the ninth over.
“On a wicket like this, I knew what my pockets were,” Rahul said.
“If I wanted to hit a big six, I knew what pockets to target, and [wicket] keeping gave me a feel for where other batters were dismissed and where they hit the sixes.”
Rahul raised his half century off 37 balls but upped the ante when he smashed premier Bengaluru fast bowler Hazlewood for 22 runs in the 15th over, which featured three fours and a six over long off.
Bengaluru missed a golden opportunity when Rajat Patidar couldn’t cling onto a difficult two-handed running catch off Rahul, who finished with six sixes and seven fours as he shared Delhi’s best fifth-wicket IPL stand with Stubbs.
“Got lucky with the dropped catch,” Rahul said.
“This is my ground, my home, know it better than anyone else.”
Salt’s assault against Starc helped Bengaluru raise the fastest half-century by a team in this edition of the IPL, in just three overs, with the Australian paceman’s second over going for 30 runs.
Salt hit four fours and three sixes before he was involved in a bizarre run-out when he slipped after Virat Kohli ran him out having initially called for a tight single before turning back.
Bengaluru never got back the momentum against spinners Nigam and Yadav before Tim David slammed an unbeaten 37 off 20 balls.
Kohli made 22 off 14 balls.
Bengaluru had a chance when Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s two strikes had Delhi stuttering at 4-58 before Rahul and Tristan Stubbs (38 not out) combined in a match-winning unbroken 111-run stand off 55 balls.
Delhi, with eight points from four successive wins, shares top spot with Gujarat Titans, which has played one more game.
Bengaluru, with three away wins and two home defeats, is third on six points.
AP/AAP
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