Visiting team Delhi Daredevils (DD) suffered their fourth defeat in this season after the hosts Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) comfortably beat them by 6 wickets with 12 balls to spare at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru) on Saturday night.
The hosts’ skipper Virat Kohli won the toss and decided to field first. After their early openers’ dismissals, the visiting team DD put 174/5 at the end of 20 overs.
Chasing down that target, AB de Villiers showed a brilliant batting performance as the hosts reached the target successfully in 18 overs after losing 4 wickets.
Now, we will briefly talk about some important reasons for DD’s defeat in this match.
Failed to provide a good start
Both Delhi opening batsmen departed cheaply (Jason Roy 5 and Gautam Gambhir 3) as the team failed to gain a good start. The team totally failed to use the powerplay as the scoreboard was 28/2 at the end of the 6 overs.
Later, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant put an important 75-run partnership for the third wicket which built up that innings. In the end, Pant batted destructively as the team added 71 runs in the last five overs. However, those were not enough for the team to secure an away victory.
Failed to take the advantage after RCB’s shaky start
Like DD innings, RCB also had not a good start as the hosts provided a shaky start. The home team lost their both openers quickly as Manan Vohra just scored 2 runs and Quinton de Kock was run-out for 18 runs after a mix-up with Virat Kohli. As a result, RCB was once 29/2 in 4.3 overs.
But soon the home team made a comeback in the game with the partnership of skipper Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Since that, RCB never lost their momentum in the game as Delhi team failed to take that crucial chance at the initial stage.
Not the good fielding
Though DD player Trent Boult took one of the best catches in the IPL history, it was not a good day on DD’s fielding. They made some mistakes on the field which released the pressure on the opponents. The team must have to look in this special sector and needs to make the improvement to change their current fate in this season.
AB de Villiers’ knock
RCB batsman AB de Villiers almost single-handedly secured the game for the hosts. The right-handed batting giant was not out on 90 runs off just 39 balls (230.76 strike-rates) with 10 fours and 5 sixes. He had no mercy on the visiting bowlers as he smashed them in a familiar way. The Protease batsman came to bat at the important moment and changed the game by securing a comfortable 6-wicket victory.
