Delhi Capitals wait for their first points on the board continues as they failed to bag the 2 points even their IPL 2023 face-off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, losing the match by 23 runs. After winning the toss, the David Warner-led side elected to field first. Even though it initially looked like that the home team might go on to post a total in excesss of 180 with ease, especially when Virat Kohli (50 off 34) and Mahipal Lomror (26 off 18) was batting and how Glenn Maxwell had started, Delhi took a team hat-trick in the middle to derail Bangalore's innings.
In the end, Bangalore still managed to post 174/6 in their 20 overs, thanks largely to Shahbaz Ahmed's 20 off 12. Earlier, captain Faf du Plessis had also played a handy contribution ensuring that the hosts get going inside the powerplay, scoring 22 off 16.
While it was definitely an achievable target at this venue and given the nature of the pitch, Delhi got off to a nightmarish start with Prithvi Shaw getting run out in the first over. DC kept on losing wickets inside the powerplay and were 4 down before the 6-over mark. Manish Pandey (50 off 38) played pretty much a lone hand in the run-chase and that wasn't going to be enough chasing closing to 9 runs an over right from the outset.
Axar Patel (21 off 14) and Anrich Nortje (23* off 14) also chipped in but even their innings never at any point seemed to threaten the Bangalore score with the latter coming only after the match had slipped away from Delhi's grip.
IPL debutant Vijaykumar Vyshak was the most successful bowler for Bangalore on the day as he finished with figures of 3 for 20.
While this was the fifth defeat in a row for Delhi whose batting failed yet again, Kuldeep Yadav (2 for 23) came out as a real positive along with Pandey getting back into some run-scoring form but they would want more from their top-order which has let them down yet again.
Meanwhile, this was Bangalore's second win in four matches.