Virat Kohli, Bhuvneshwar Kumar Star as Royal Challengers Bengaluru Crush Delhi Capitals for 76-Run Chase

While Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal helped Royal Challengers Bengaluru chase a small target of 76 against Delhi Capitals, the win was mainly set up by their bowlers. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood put up jaw-dropping performances as RCB registered a Net run-rate boosting win over the Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Bengaluru arrived in Delhi in a bid to redeem their loss at home against the Capitals, and they did that in one of the most unthinkable fashions.

It was a perfect bowling performance from RCB, as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood made the ball swing and broke through the DC batting line-up. After choosing to bowl first, RCB started strongly, with Bhuvneshwar taking a wicket on just the second ball of the match. He cleaned up debutant Sahil Parakh with a brilliant swinging delivery.

Josh Hazlewood kept the pressure on as he got KL Rahul out with a short ball, caught by Jitesh Sharma. Things got worse for the hosts as they were six down for just 8 runs, with Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hazlewood taking three wickets each. Hazlewood then dismissed Sameer Rizvi caught behind, and Tristan Stubbs edged an outswinger from Bhuvneshwar to be caught in the slips.

RCB Bowlers Dominate as Kohli and Padikkal Seal Easy Win

Axar Patel was nicked behind by Bhuvi as DC called Abhishek Porel in SOS impact sub call. The decision paid dividends as he was the highest scorer for DC, but not before the hara-kiri that DC had committed, going down to 8/6 in 3.5 overs. In what was a shameful outing for the batters, Porel was the only saving grace for them. After DC were reeling at 13/6 post the powerplay, Porel led the charge with the bat and scored 30 from 33 balls.

The top six batters managed just seven runs in total. David Miller and Abishek Porel added 35 runs for the seventh wicket. Miller was later dismissed by Rasikh Salam, while Porel held on for a while longer. He had a 19-run association for the eighth wicket with Kyle Jamieson before adding nine for the ninth with Kuldeep Yadav. His wicket was the final one to fall when Hazlewood cleaned him up. While the things were set with the ball, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal led the charge in the meagre chase.

Playing in place of the injured Phil Salt, Jacob Bethell took the bowlers to the attack early in the chase. He made 20 from 11 balls with two sixes and a four before being caught brilliantly by T Natarajan in the deep. Padikkal and Kohli joined hands with the former, launching an attack and making a mockery of the chase. He continued his impressive rise and made 34 from 13 balls, while Kohli made 23 from 15 with two sixes, with the second one taking the team home, during a knock where Kohli breached the 9000-run mark too.