Despite the win, RCB have finished third on the points table and will now face KKR in the Eliminator on Monday.
Image credit: BCCI / IPL
Here are the key highlights of the show:
Dhawan, Shaw got off to an excellent start (DC 88/0 at the halfway mark): Put in a bat, Delhi Capitals openers Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan gave their team a solid start and formed an 88 run stand for the opening wicket. Shaw fell two runs short of his half-century, scoring 48 off 31 balls, including 4 fours and 2 sixes, before being dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal. The experienced left-handed player Dhawan contributed 43 runs off 35 balls. His knock was dotted with 3 fours and 2 sixes. At the halfway mark DC was 88-0.
Shikhar Dhawan
Prithvi Shaw
RCB hit back with 3 wickets in 3 overs: IPL 2021 top wicketkeeper to date, Harshal Patel, got the first step for the Delhi Capitals when he sent the stable Dhawan back for 43 runs and then hit Chahal in the next match to show off a dangerous Shaw (48) road in back to the pavilion. Daniel Christian did not allow batsman No. 3 Rishabh Pant to settle in midfield and dismissed him for a paltry 10 in his first match. Three wickets in three overs by RCB was enough to put the brakes at DC’s running rate.
Hetmyer raised Delhi to 164: The bulky Shimron Hetmyer came in and produced some fireworks in the death bouts, scoring 29 off 22 balls, to take DC to a challenging 164 for 5. The left wing hit 2 boundaries and so many maxes in his 22 -ball.
Image credit: BCCI / IPL
ROYAL CHALLENGES INNINGS BANGALORE:
The RCB hunt got off to a bad start: Chasing DC in 164, RCB was at a shaky start. Anrich Nortje gave DC a dream start as he pulled Devdutt Padikkal for a golden duck and then got the valuable wicket of RCB skipper Virat Kohli, who scored just 4. RCB lost two of their star batters with just 6 runs on the board in the 3rd over.
Maxwell survived twice in one over (14th) and his partnership with KS Bharat kept RCB on track: Glenn Maxwell had two save lines in the fourth of Axar and the last over. He was batting at 6 when Shreyas Iyer dropped a sitter in the middle of the deep wicket and then Ashwin fired a catch in the third short man in Axar’s last ball over. Both cost DC a heavy chance as the form-man went on to score 51 unbeaten off 33 balls to take RCB to a magnificent victory.
Glenn Maxwell
The other star with the bat for RCB was wicket-keeper KS Bharat who scored 78 * off 52 and formed a 111-run unbeaten run stand with Maxwell for the fourth wicket.
KS Bharat
With 5 needed off the last ball, Bharat hit six to seal RCB’s 7 wicket victory: Although DC did not let RCB run away with the match. Virat Kohli’s team needed 5 off the last ball to win. 4 runs were needed to get the game into a fight, but KS Bharat kept his cool, went back to the crease, and smashed the ball over Avesh Khan’s head for six to seal the deal for RCB . A glorious shot that will be remembered for a while, as the RCB camp explodes in celebration.