It took an awfully long time to come but it came at last. AB de Villiers was back to his stunning best, bashing the ball to all parts of the ground as Royal Challengers Bangalore roared back with a six-wicket win over a struggling Delhi Daredevils side in an IPL encounter at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.
There were couple of noteworthy shots in de Villiers’ unbeaten 90-run inning – both came off successive deliveries from Harshal Patel – his former teammate at RCB. First one was a huge six over deep mid-wicket, where de Villiers swiveled back so quickly that it appeared he had picked up the length even before Patel had released the ball. The next one was a trademark AB shot, walking across the stumps with the wish of a flick towards the on side but changing his mind at the last moment to drive it over covers for a four. There was it, AB was back.
And truly he was. There was no stopping Mr. 360. He hit Tewatiya, the most economical Daredevils bowler wherever he wanted. He swept and pulled countrymen Morris to the leg side at will.
The RCB chase, which began on a sorry note ended with two overs to spare with de Villiers staying unbeaten on 90 off just 39 balls that included five sixes and ten fours.
Delhi had their moments in the match, they had reduced RCB to 29 for 2 in 4 overs when Kohli and de Villiers held fort. The most dangerous RCB pair was dislodged courtesy a moment of brilliance from Trent Boult, who rewrote the definition of a brilliant catch with his one-handed stunner to send Kohli back for 30. But de Villiers was too good.
Delhi, on the other hand are lying on the bottom of the table with four losses from five matches.
Delhi Daredevils innings
Rishab Pant and Shreyas Iyer cracked twin half-centuries as Delhi Daredevils recovered from a slow start to post a respectable 174-5 against Royal Challengers Bangalore in their IPL fixture at the M Chinnaswamy stadium.
Pant (85) anchored the DD innings as he shared a 75-run stand in 8.1 overs with Iyer (52 off 31 balls) and then added another 65 with Rahul Tewatia (13 not out). His 48-ball innings was laced with six boundaries and seven sixes.
For RCB, leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (2/22) claimed two wickets, while Umesh Yadav (1/27), Washington Sundar (1/31) and Corey Anderson (1/10) took one wicket each.
After electing to bowl, RCB tightened the screw on Delhi Daredevils right from the start with Umesh Yadav dismissing skipper Gautam Gambhir (3) in the third over. The visitors could manage only 11 in first four overs.
First down Iyer (52) then tried to break the shackles by smashing two boundaries off Yadav but Yuzvendra Chahal soon produced a flipper and cleaned up the other opener Jason Roy (5), who was struggling against the lethal leg-spin of the Indian spinner.
New man Pant then joined Iyer and he was off the mark with a boundary as Delhi Daredevils reached 28-2, the lowest powerplay score this season. Iyer smashed a four and six off Yadav's last over as DD crossed the 50-mark in 9 overs.
The young duo slowly started to pile up the runs and amassed 75 runs in 8.1 overs to take Delhi close to the 100-mark.
In the 14th over, Iyer clobbered two consecutive sixes off Washington Sundar to bring up his fifty before giving away a simple catch to Mohammad Siraj at short third man as DD slipped to 98-3.
Glenn Maxwell (4) then tried to play a reverse shot which was caught by Siraj again at short third man.
Pant, meanwhile, continued to take the bowlers to the cleaners as he blasted back-to-back sixes off Chahal over long-off and third man boundary. He repeated the treatment to Siraj in the 18th over before sending Chris Woakes for a leather hunt with two fours and a six in the 19th over.
Corey Anderson bowled the final over and Pant sent him out of the park in the second ball before he was caught by AB de villiers when he was trying for another big shot.
Toss Report
Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and invited Delhi Daredevils to bat first in match No. 19 of the eleventh edition of IPL at Bangalore.
Desperate for a win, both sides have made one change in their team. Delhi Daredevils have brought shown the door to the out of form, who went the distant in pretty much all the matches. Medium pacer Harshal Patel, who will be up against his last franchise, has replaced Shami.
The hosts, equally struggling to put together a string of goof performances finally ran out of patience with Sarfraz Khan, who was retained by the franchise as their third option. Punjab opener Manan Vohra gets his first opportunity on IPL 2018.
With chances of rain later in the night, both the captains wanted to field first
“There could be rain around. When these things happen, it usually rains in Bangalore. Outfield already wet, could get worse as we go along. Understanding what we need to do in the second half would be helpful,” said Kohli
“Would have bowled first too. It's easier to chase in Bangalore. Toss is not in our control. Bowling is something we need to work upon. Have conceded 200 runs twice in the tournament. Our batting needs to click as well,” said Gambhir.
Delhi Daredevils (Playing XI): Gautam Gambhir(c), Jason Roy, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant(w), Glenn Maxwell, Rahul Tewatia, Vijay Shankar, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Harshal Patel, Trent Boult
Royal Challengers Bangalore (Playing XI): Quinton de Kock(w), Manan Vohra, Virat Kohli(c), AB de Villiers, Mandeep Singh, Corey Anderson, Washington Sundar, Chris Woakes, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal