Delhi Capitals (DC) lost to Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) by 47 runs in their IPL 2024 match at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, on Sunday.
Though our skipper Axar Patel top-scored in the contest with 57 off 39 balls, hitting five fours and three sixes, we scored only 140 in reply to RCB’s 187/9. Yash Dayal finished with 3/20 as Lockie Ferguson picked up two wickets.
For RCB, Rajat Patidar made 52 and Will Jacks scored 41. Rasikh Dar was the pick of our bowlers as he finished with 2/23 whereas Khaleel Ahmed picked up 2/31.
Earlier, Axar Patel won the toss and elected to field first. Kumar Kushagra and Rasikh Dar came into the team in place of Rishabh Pant and Gulbadin Naib respectively.
Our star pacer Mukesh Kumar picked up a wicket with just his second ball of the night after RCB got off the blocks quickly. Mukesh got Faf du Plessis, who was caught by Jake Fraser-McGurk at deep point.
Soon Ishant Sharma trumped in a battle of the Delhi boys as he took the all-important wicket of in-form Virat Kohli to reduce RCB to 36/2. Our veteran pacer came back strongly after getting hit for two sixes and a four by Kohli, dismissing him for 27 runs.
Our bowlers displayed a great fight to pull things back as RCB were well-placed at 118/2 after 11 overs and looking to post a huge total. Rasikh Salam first got rid of Rajat Patidar to break the 88-run third-wicket partnership before Kuldeep Yadav sent back Will Jacks.
We conceded just 20 runs in the four overs between the 11th and 15th getting two well-set batters as well. Khaleel Ahmed returned to trigger a late collapse with a two-wicket burst in the 18th over. We capped off a brilliant comeback as RCB slid from 174/4 to 187/9 to set us a target of 188.
In reply, our opener Jake Fraser-McGurk got off the mark in his customary style with a six in the very first ball he faced. Even though David Warner was dismissed in the first over, Fraser-McGurk continued in the same vein with a six and two boundaries in the second over from Mohammed Siraj.
The third over was the turning point in the chase as we lost both our in-form batters off consecutive deliveries. First, Abishek Porel was caught off Yash Dayal before the unfortunate Fraser-McGurk had to depart when the ball hit the stumps after taking a deflection from the bowler’s hand. It was the only way to get him out tonight as he was looking in great nick scoring 21 off just eight balls.
At 30/4, Shai Hope and Axar Patel joined hands to provide some hope for us as they added 56 runs in six overs including eight hits to the fence. But Hope had to walk back for 29 after holing out in the deep.
Soon, Tristan Stubbs was run out as our skipper was left to do the heavy lifting with the Capitals needing 98 runs from the last nine overs with only four wickets in hand. The southpaw fought valiantly hitting three sixes to bring up his second half-century of IPL 2024.
Rasikh Salam gave Axar company as the two put on 37 runs in four overs for the seventh wicket to keep us in the game. But both of them were dismissed in consecutive overs to cease any hopes of a comeback as we folded up for 140.
DC are currently sixth in the IPL 2024 points table with 12 points from 13 matches.
We are up against Lucknow Super Giants in our final group match at the #QilaKotla on May 14.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 187/9 in 20 overs (Rajat Patidar 52, Will Jacks 41, Rasikh Salam 2/23, Khaleel Ahmed 2/31) beat Delhi Capitals (Axar Patel 57, Shai Hope 29, Yash Dayal 3/20, Lockie Ferguson 2/23) by 47 runs.
Player of the Match: Cameron Green.
