RCB STAY ALIVE
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) scored their sixth win in a row at the Ferozshah Kotla in Delhi after defeating Delhi Daredevils by five wickets to stay alive for playoff contention in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Saturday.
Skipper Virat Kohli (70) led from the front as he and AB de Villiers (72 not out) added 118 runs for the third wicket after Delhi had claimed two early wickets.
RCB lost Moeen Ali (1) and Parthiv Patel (6) within the first three overs. However, Kohli and AB then came to the party to take the visitors back on track. While Mandeep Singh fell for an unlucky 13, Sarfaraz Khan managed to score just 11 runs. Despite the fall of wickets, including Kohli’s after making 70, de Villiers stayed till the end to guide the visitors home. And with RCB needing 14 off 13 balls, de Villiers hit two sixes off Trent Boult to complete the chase with an over to spare.
Earlier, Delhi Daredevils rode on some power-packed batting by Rishabh Pant and talented teenager Abhishek Sharma to post a challenging total of 181-4.
Pant plundered 61 runs off 34 balls to help Delhi overcome some early hiccups. The 17-year-old Sharma gave the finishing touches to the innings, smashing his way to 46 runs off just 19 balls to give the hosts a very good chance to clinch the fourth win of a rather forgettable campaign. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal was the most successful among the RCB bowlers with figures of 2-28.
Delhi suffered their first blow in the opening over itself when opener Prithvi Shaw was bowled while attempting a rather languid shot off Chahal’s bowling.
Chahal got rid of Jason Roy — the other Delhi opener — in his next over with a sharply incoming delivery that totally bamboozled the England batsman before going on to disturb the stumps.
Pant and Shreyas Iyer came together to add 93 runs between over the next 62 deliveries in an attempt to bring the Delhi innings back on track. Pant played a major role in boosting the run rate. His power-packed knock included five hits to the fence and four towering sixes.
Off-spinner Moeen Ali finally brought the rampage to an end when Pant attempted another big hit, only to be caught by AB de Villiers near the boundary rope wide of long-on.
Iyer amassed a patient 32 off 35 balls before he too departed in an attempt to pump up the run rate. The right-hander had attempted to smash pacer Mohammed Siraj over the onside, but his mistimed shot could only manage to find RCB skipper Virat Kohli.
Delhi’s teenaged all-rounder Abhishek Sharma then produced some fireworks lower down the order to help the hosts post a challenging total.
The 17-year-old thumped three boundaries and four hits into the stands as Delhi finished their innings on a high note. —