Rajat Patidar, Yash Dayal shine as RCB beat Capitals

There was an air of uncertainty inside the M Chinnaswamy Stadium halfway through Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s clash with Delhi Capitals on Sunday. It was a must-win game for the hosts but from 110/2 in 10 overs, they had stumbled to a total of 187/9. The visitors had the momentum and RCB, for the second year running, were staring at a league stage exit.

Despite a valiant 39-ball 57 by DC’s stand-in skipper Axar Patel, though, RCB rode on a fine spell by pacer Yash Dayal to turn things around and keep their playoff hopes alive with a 47-run victory. It was a fifth successive win for RCB and tied them with DC on 12 points. Both teams have one game remaining, and depending on other results they can still qualify.

On the face of it, the pitch looked a belter. There was no grass on it, unlike a couple of previous games at the Chinnaswamy, and the sheen suggested there would be plenty of runs. But there was some dampness in it too, which offered some help to the pacers as the ball stopped and came. RCB, asked to bat first, however got a decent start thanks to Virat Kohli.

The former skipper, who became the first to play 250 IPL games for a single franchise, hit a couple of sublime strokes although Faf du Plessis fell early. His duel with his Delhi state-mate Ishant Sharma was particularly interesting as he went after the senior pacer. But Ishant had the last laugh, getting Kohli to edge one to the ‘keeper (27, 13 balls).

Rajat Patidar (52 off 32) joined Will Jacks (41 off 29) then and RCB got an 88-run partnership – their biggest of the night. Their job, however, was made a lot easier due to some poor bowling by Delhi.

Kuldeep Yadav, who bowled by far the most expensive spell of the match (1/52), was unfortunate as a couple of catches were dropped off his bowling. But overall he struggled to get his length right. The left-arm wrist spinner kept tossing the ball too far up in search of spin and was hit for six sixes.

There was an 11-ball period from the ninth over when DC performed what could only be described as hara kiri. Rishabh Pant, suspended for the game, sat in the dugout with a look of resignation as his team dropped four catches during that brief phase.

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The visitors, however, fought back brilliantly in the second half of the innings thanks to their pacers. Ishant, Khaleel Ahmed, Mukesh Kumar and Rasikh Salam used the slower ball effectively to stifle the run flow. Cameron Green (32* off 24) struck around but the in-form Dinesh Karthik was dismissed for a second-ball duck with the hosts scoring just 18 runs in the last three overs.

“I felt the pitch was a bit two-paced when I went in to bat. The ball was holding a bit, especially the slower once. So, it made things a bit difficult,” said Patidar during the innings break. “We can surely defend this total easily if we bowl in the right areas.”

Delhi got off to a horrendous start in the chase and the pitch had little to do with it. David Warner, who had missed the last five games due to a thumb injury, came on as substitute but lasted just two deliveries. Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel and Kumar Kushagra also were dismissed soon after and DC were tottering at 30/4 in the fourth over.

Axar, in at No.6, looked determined and went on the offensive in a 56-run partnership with Shai Hope. RCB picked a couple of more wickets but Axar kept going and brought up a 30-ball half-century, his second this season. Needing 64 off the last six overs, DC had a glimmer of hope but it wasn’t to be as RCB regained control with Yash Dayal (3/20) delivering the standout spell.