Delhi Capitals registered their fourth win of the season to stay afloat as they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in Match 50 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.
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Phil Salt’s blistering innings of 87 (45) coupled with quick-fire knocks from Mitchell Marsh (26 off 17) and Rilee Rossouw (35* off 22) powered the home side to a seven-wicket win after Virat Kohli (55 off 46) and Mahipal Lomror’s (54* off 29) fifties had lifted the away side to a competitive 181/4.
Chasing 182, David Warner was up and running straightaway as he cracked a couple of fours off Siraj in the first over of the innings. Phil Salt too took the aggressive route as he cracked a four off Glenn Maxwell and then a four and a six off Josh Hazlewood.
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Warner welcomed Wanindu Hasaranga into the attack with a powerful six over deep square leg. He thumped another four through the same region to make it 12 runs off the over. Salt continued his aggressive batting as he hit consecutive sixes and a four off Mohd. Siraj. It was Hazlewood who finally broke the 60-run stand as he outfoxed Warner (22 off 14) with a slower one, having him caught at mid off. Mitchell Marsh was quick to get off the blocks as he cracked a six and a four off Hazlewood to take DC to 70/1 at the end of the Powerplay.
Salt continued to keep the scoreboard ticking and brought up his second IPL fifty, off just 28 balls and DC’s 100 as he smacked a pull over mid-wicket off Karn Sharma to take 16 off the 9th over. With the partnership blossoming, Kohli brought on Harshal Patel, who had replaced Kedar Jadhav as the Impact Player in the eighth over, into the attack and he broke the 59-run partnership, having Marsh(26 off 17) caught at deep square leg off a slower one.
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With 56 needed off 48, Salt and Rilee Rossouw took the attack to Harshal, smashing three sixes and a four to amass 24 runs from the over and bring the required run rate below five. It was a momentum changing over which put DC firmly in the driver’s seat. Salt continued to deal in sixes as he smacked one over deep mid-wicket off Hasaranga to bring the equation down to 23 needed off 36. Salt’s fantastic 87-run innings finally came to an end as he dragged one onto the stumps off Karn Sharma with 11 needed off 28. Axar arrived and cracked a six first ball. Rossouw finished it off in style with a six over deep mid-wicket as DC chased down the target with 20 balls and seven wickets to spare.
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Earlier, Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and elected to bat. They made one change to the starting XI as Kedar Jadhav replaced Suyash Prabhudessai. The away team named Harshal Patel, Suyash Prabhudessai, Michael Bracewell, Vijaykumar Vyshak and Shahbaz Ahmed as their substitutes.
Delhi Capitals made three changes to the starting eleven as Mitchell Marsh, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed replaced Anrich Nortje, Priyam Garg and Ripal Patel. They named Chetan Sakariya, Abishek Porel, Ripal Patel, Lalit Yadav and Pravin Dubey as their substitutes.
Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis got the Royal Challengers Bangalore off to a steady start. Kohli opened his account with a cracking punch through covers for a four off Khaleel off the second ball of the match. He then cut one powerfully off Axar Patel and thumped a pull off Ishant Sharma for two more fours. After a quiet over from Axat, Faf du Plessis got into the act as he hit three fours off Mukesh Kumar. He then hit the first six of the match, lofting a low full toss from Khaleel over long off as the duo took 15 off the over to take RCB to 51/0 at the end of the Powerplay.
DC pulled back things a little bit, conceding just two fours in the next four overs and the pressure brought reward as Mitchell Marsh had du Plessis (45 off 32) caught at deep point and then had Glenn Maxwell caught behind off the next ball.
Kohli and Mahipal Lomror got things moving and hit 43 off the 12-15 overs phase, hitting three sixes and two fours as Kohli reached his fifty off 42 balls. Lomror brought up the fifty-run stand off just 29 balls, flicking one behind square leg for a four off Mukesh but Mukesh bounced back in the over to get the huge wicket of Kohli (55 off 46), caught at short fine leg. Lomror then brought up his fifty off just 26 balls as he cracked a four through extra cover off Mukesh Kumar. He and Karthik put on a brisk 35 runs from 19 balls before Karthik was caught at long off in the final over.
DC brought in Ripal Patel as their Impact Player in place of Ishant Sharma in the final over. Khaleel bowled an impressive final over, giving away just nine as RCB reached 181/4 from 20 overs. Lomror remained unbeaten on 54 off 29 balls with six fours and three sixes.A
