At the ground where he began his cricketing journey, KL Rahul returned, donning Delhi Capitals’ red-and-blue, and delivered one of the knocks of this season.

Facing a challenging run chase, Delhi Capitals appeared to be in a tricky position. However, Rahul held his composure, solidified the innings and delivered a remarkable finish to help us beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by six wickets at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday, April 10.

The match was as eventful as one could’ve asked for. At 61/0, the home team looked poised to post a formidable target, however, a moment of brilliance in the field, marked by a sharp run out and a disciplined display of spin bowling put brakes on their scoring rate.

During the run chase, early wickets put us under pressure, but a match-defining innings from KL Rahul, complemented by a composed finishing effort from Tristan Stubbs, ensured we emerged victorious.

Earlier, skipper Axar Patel won the toss and chose to field, but we weren’t off to an ideal start. Phil Salt went all out in the opening three overs with Virat Kohli as RCB raced to 53 runs in only three overs.

In the third over, Vipraj Nigam and KL Rahul combined to get our first breakthrough. A miscommunication between the RCB batters led to the dismissal of Salt, who fell short of his crease in an attempt to scramble back.

That opened a floodgate of dot balls for us, with Mukesh Kumar coming in and bowling only the third maiden over of this edition’s IPL. To make it better, he also dismissed Devdutt Padikkal in the over as we made a strong comeback in the Powerplay.

Vipraj Nigam and Kuldeep Yadav - our leggie twins - took charge of the innings and totally curbed the run flow. Vipraj got the big wicket of Virat Kohli in his second over, with Mitchell Starc taking a splendid catch at long-off.

Kuldeep too weaved his magic and put a speedbreaker on the run flow. He also took two huge wickets of RCB captain Rajat Patidar and Jitesh Sharma.

The spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav (2/17 in four overs) and Vipraj Singh (2/18 in four overs) delivered exceptional spells, applying sustained pressure through the middle overs. As a result, RCB managed only 53 runs between the 7th and 15th overs, scoring at a rate of less than six runs per over.

Tim David scored some vital runs in the lower order for RCB, which helped them get to 163/7 in 20 overs.

After the break, RCB bowlers were in full control in the powerplay, picking three big wickets early on. Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel were all dismissed in an attempt to attack, leaving us at 30/3.

KL Rahul, alongside Axar Patel, curbed the run flow for a while to steady the ship, but the skipper’s wicket in the ninth over further dented our aspirations. With the track slowing down and required rate touching double digits, the chase seemed too far away, but Rahul and Stubbs had other ideas.

The duo held their attacking instincts and steered through the middle overs without losing a wicket. Rahul took on the bowlers to get the occasional boundary, while Stubbs waited for his opportunity and calculated his knock brilliantly.

At 99/4 after 14 overs, Rahul decided to shift gears and change the momentum, as he took on Josh Hazlewood in the 15th over.

With 22 runs coming off Hazlewood, we emphatically moved closer to our target and Stubbs too joined the attack in the following over, smashing a four and six off Suyash Sharma.

KL Rahul finished the game off in style in the 18th over, where we got 23 runs with a ball remaining. Rahul hit a six towards fine leg to seal the deal, as Delhi Capitals picked up four wins on the trot to remain the only unbeaten side so far.

We head to Delhi for our next match, where we host Mumbai Indians on Sunday.

Brief Scores

Royal Challengers Bengaluru 163/7 in 20 overs (Tim David 37*; Kuldeep Yadav 2/17, Vipraj Nigam 2/18) lost to Delhi Capitals 169/4 in 17.5 overs (KL Rahul 93*, Tristan Stubbs 38*)

Player of the Match: KL Rahul