Delhi Capitals extend winning streak by trouncing Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 6 wickets
2025 Indian Premier League: Delhi Capitals defeated Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 6 wickets to go 2nd in the points table
KL Rahul played a scintillating knock in his hometown
Royal Challengers Bengaluru returned to the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on the back of yet another away win and once again succumbed to a loss at home as Delhi Capitals extended their winning streak to four matches in the 2025 Indian Premier League season.
After winning the toss, DC skipper Axar Patel chose to field first and welcomed back former RCB skipper Faf du Plessis in the Capitals’ playing contingent after the veteran missed the previous match due to illness.
RCB openers Phil Salt and Virat Kohli enjoyed the best possible start to the match as the England opening batter smashed 36 runs off the first 14 balls he faced helping RCB cross the 50-run mark in the third over which went for a total of 30 runs as Mitchell Starc didn’t enjoy a happy return to the Chinnaswamy Stadium.
While Kohli kept the momentum going in the fourth over with a brilliant maximum, Salt wanted to steal a quick single and slipped in the process which costed RCB a precious wicket and DC stole the march from there as Devdutt Padikkal could only muster 1 run off 8 balls before losing his wicket to Mukesh Kumar who bowled a wicket maiden to stun the Royal Challengers.
After conceding a maximum, Vipraj Nigam dismissed Kohli as the former Indian skipper was going for a lofted drive but found Starc who completed a brilliant catch of his former teammate to end his innings at a score of 22 runs off 14 balls.
Rajat Patidar tried to wrestle back the momentum, but Liam Livingstone lost his wicket cheaply to Mohit Sharma, forcing another change in the middle as Jitesh Sharma came in and took a few balls to settle on an unusual Chinnaswamy wicket. After mustering only 3 runs off 11 balls, Jitesh lost his patience and skied the ball, which was easily pouched by KL Rahul.
Between the 15th and the 18th over, Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj tightened the noose around the RCB batters as they conceded only 15 runs off 24 balls while dismissing both RCB skipper Patidar and all-rounder Krunal Pandya.
With spin doing the trick, Axar decided to bowl the 19th over himself ahead of Mohit or Starc, who are death-over specialists, and Tim David took full advantage of that by smashing 17 runs against Axar in the penultimate over of the innings. The power-hitter decided to keep strike for the 20th over and even smashed the economical Mukesh for 19 runs in the last over by smashing two maximums and a four to help RCB post 163 runs on the board.
The first innings could be summarised in two sections: 89/0 in five overs (1st to 3rd overs and 19th to 20th overs) and 74/7 from the 4th to the 18th over where DC completely took control and snatched the momentum from the hosts by continuously taking wickets.
After the two-paced nature of the wicket was exposed, RCB bowlers were ready to take advantage of the same and deployed Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yash Dayal as the former dismissed Jake Fraser-McGurk while the latter scalped the wicket of former Royal Challengers skipper du Plessis, leaving DC reeling at 10/2.
From thereon, KL Rahul and Abhishek Porel tried to rebuild the innings and Dayal could have dismissed Rahul as well, but skipper Patidar spilt the ball after making a massive effort of reaching it with a big sprint.