Match Report: M20 - RCB vs DC
Match Recap
The Delhi Capitals registered their third win of VIVO IPL 2019 when they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday evening. After winning the toss and opting to bowl, the Delhi Capitals restricted the hosts to 149-8, and then chased down the runs in 18.5 overs. The win halted the Delhi Capitals’ brief two-match losing streak, and left RCB winless after six matches this season.
Shreyas Iyer played a captain’s knock in the Delhi Capitals’ run-chase. He walked in to bat in the first over and left the arena when his team was five runs away from the target. In the period in between, he dominated proceedings and played some brilliant strokes. He made 67 from 50 balls, and hit eight boundaries and two sixes in his knock.
Prithvi Shaw (28 from 22 balls) and Rishabh Pant (18 from 14 balls), once again got off to starts, but both youngsters failed to finish the job. Shaw, who played some eye-catching strokes inhis 68-run stand with his captain, attempted to hit the ball into the stands but holed out to midwicket, while Pant picked mid off with his team three runs away from a win.
RCB dropped catches – including when Shreyas was on 4 and 42, and were generally sloppy in the field and with the ball. The bowlers were guilty of bowling six wides and one no ball in the innings.
Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore lacked momentum for most part of their batting innings. Virat Kohli held one end up and played a very uncharacteristic innings, while several others got off to starts, but perished while attempting to find the boundary. Moeen Ali gave the RCB innings the impetus the innings so desperately needed with a brief cameo, while Akshdeep Nath improvised at the end to collect four boundaries in his 12-ball 19. Each of RCB’s first five partnerships yielded more than 15 runs, but none was worth more than 37.
Standout batting performances
Shreyas Iyermastered the conditions and played the most impressive innings in the match; he opened his account with a flowing square drive, and was soon after put down by Parthiv Patel behind the stumps. The 24-year old then mixed caution and aggression but never allowed the bowlers to call the shots. Shreyas was free-flowing through the off-side, and his handling of the spinners - off whom he scored 42 runs off 29 balls – was delightful to watch. The Delhi Capitals captain brought up his half-century in the fourteenth over, getting there in 37 balls. He batted on until the eighteenth over when he attempted to pull a Navdeep Saini short delivery, but only managed the top edge, and the catch was taken at cover.
Moeen Ali was in the middle for a period of just under four overs, yet his was the best batting performance in the RCB innings. The left-hander came out to bat at number five and scored 32 from 18 balls; his innings contained one boundary and three sixes. His big hits included a six over cow-corner off Axar Patel, a pull to a short pitched delivery from Ishant Sharma, and a huge hit off a googly from Sandeep Lamichhane. The left-hander dominated his 37-run partnership with Virat Kohli; he was dismissed stumped, when he charged out, didn’t pick the wrong ‘un and missed the ball completely.
Notable Support Act - Batting
It is not often that Virat Kohli’s name will feature as support cast. It appeared as if the RCB skipper had taken the onus upon himself to bat through the innings. He opened his account with an edge that flew wide of the lone slip fielder, and thereafter collected his next 24 runs through singles; at one point in time, he had a sequence of 17 consecutive singles. It was only in the seventeenth over, when RCB had to up the ante, that Virat broke the shackles; he choose the teenage leg-spinner Lamichhane and hit him for consecutive sixes. But in the very next over he was dismissed, when, attempting to hit one out of the ground, he got more height than distance and was caught at long-on. Virat’s workman-like knock fetched him 41 runs from 33 balls.
Standout Bowling performance
Kagiso Rabadapicked up both the big guns in the RCB line-up; in his first over, he deceived AB de Villiers with a well-disguised slower ball and had him caught at wide long-on, and then with the first ball of his second spell he dismissed Virat Kohli. Rabada picked up two more wickets in the same over – dismissing Akshdeep Nath and Pawan Negi.Rabada finished with figures of 4-0-21-4; his spell contained nine dot deliveries.
The South African pacer adapted to the two-paced surfaced very well. He tested the speed gun consistently – even clocking a speed of 153.9kph on one occasion, but then mixed it up well, using the slower delivery very intelligently.
Brief Scores:
Delhi Capitals: 152-6 in 18.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 69) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore: 149-8 (Virat Kohli 41, Moeen Ali 32, Kagiso Rabada 4-21) by 4 wickets.
Stat of the Match
Kagiso Rabada’s 4 for 21 were his best bowling figures in T20 cricket.
Man of the Match:
Kagiso Rabada, for his 4 for 21.