In the 50th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023, Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by seven wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. This is their fourth victory in this ongoing edition, and their consecutive second win as well.
RCB captain Faf du Plessis won the toss and opted to bat first on a typical sluggish Kotla deck, but with the help of formidable half-century innings from Mahipal Lomror and Virat Kohli helped the Bengaluru-based outfit to put up a total of 181/4 in their given 20 overs.
While chasing, DC came up with a fiery intent, as both the openers Phillip Salt (87) and skipper David Warner (22) gave a thunderous start to the Capitals. Both of them knit a superb 60 runs partnership which they have made within the powerplay, which gave the team an upper hand in this innings. However, Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood scalped the first wicket for the visitors, as he got succeed in plucking Warner’s wicket in the sixth over. But Salt was in his zone today, as he was continuing to smack the balls for the boundaries, and did not gave any chance for RCB to script their comeback in this encounter. After Warner’s dismissal, Mitchell Marsh (26) assisted his partner from England in this chase, but he got out in the 11th over by Harshal Patel. In the end, 52 runs partnership between Rilee Rossouw (35)* and Salt ensured Delhi’s win, although the 26-year old English batter got out after playing his best IPL knock in the 16th over. The Delhi-based team chased this total of 182 runs in the 16.4 overs.
RCB did not have a great day with the ball, as Hazlewood, Karn Sharma, and Harshal were the only names in the wicket-taker list, as three of them scalped one wicket each.
In the first innings, RCB had a steady start, as once again their seasoned campaigners skipper du Plessis (45) and Virat (55) stitched 82 runs partnership for the first wicket. Marsh helped DC to claimed two wickets in succession as he got rid of Faf and dismissed Glenn Maxwell on duck. The responsibility of re-building and consolidation of the innings to a good total was again came back to Kohli’s shoulders. But this time, Lomror (54)* stood up and played an aggressor role, which helped the former skipper to anchor this innings. Both of them built 55 runs partnership for the third wicket, before Virat got out in the 16th over. The 23-year old batter from the state of Rajasthan had helped RCB to score a challenging total of 181 runs.
With the ball, Marsh, Mukesh Kumar, and Khaleel Ahmed were the wicket takers for the team from the capital city of India, as the Australian all-rounder picked two wickets, whereas Mukesh and Khaleel claimed one wicket each.
For his explosive knock of 87 runs which had eight sensational fours and massive six sixes, Phillip Salt was adjuged Player of the Match.
Scorecard:
Royal Challengers Bangalore: 181/4, Overs 20, Virat Kohli 55, Mitchell Marsh 2/21
Delhi Capitals: 187/3, Overs 16.4, Phillip Salt 87, Josh Hazlewood 1/29