Delhi Capitals thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by seven wickets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Friday, May 6 to keep their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 playoff hopes alive. DC bowlers restricted RCB to 181 in the first innings, and all of their top-order batters clicked today to make the chase look easy as they crossed the finish line with 20 balls remaining.
Deciding to bat first, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis put on a partnership of 82 runs for the first wicket and gave RCB a good start. Mitchell Marsh made a huge breakthrough in the 11th over, striking du Plessis for 45 off 32 balls and then dismissing Glenn Maxwell in the very next ball to gain the upper hand. Usually, if the RCB's 'KGF' (Kohli, Maxwell, and du Plessis) failed, they would collapse, but sending Mahipal Lomror at 4 worked as the left-hander played an aggressive knock while building a solid partnership with Kohli.
It was a record-breaking night for Kohli as he became the first player in IPL history to reach 7000 runs and slammed his 50th half-century. The former RCB captain scored 55 runs but his strike rate of 119.57 didn't hurt the opposition much. However, Lomror at one end attacked the spinners and made a quick-fire 29-ball 54 to set DC a decent target of 182.
In reply, David Warner (22 off 14)and Philip Salt (87 off 45) showed their intent from the start and put together a 60-run partnership for the first wicket before the former was dismissed in the sixth over. Mitchell March (26 off 17) came to bat at one down and did not lose the momentum and continued the onslaught with Salt. But the duo could not finish the game but it opened the gate for Rilee Rossouw's (35 off 22) show, who smoked three sixes and a four to ensure a comprehensive win for the hosts.
Speaking after the match DC skipper David Warner said: "Amazing. I thought it was a par score, the ball was skidding. But the way we came out led by Phil Salt paved the way. Our intention was to take on Siraj, he's been bowling well and taking wickets early. His wickets have been bowled or LBW so we wanted to drag his length back. Credit to the way the bowlers bowled, Anrich is not there but Ishant is leading the pack with Khaleel."
Here's how fans reacted to DC's one-sided victory:
Delhi capitals to RCB: I am not in the danger, I am the danger
— Freak (@soul_freak80) May 6, 2023
Well deserved defeat for RCB...
— Sachin Tiwari (@GreatTiwari80) May 6, 2023
First apna behaviour sudhare ye log...
Ben stokes...
DK and Harshal Patel costs more matches than they win for RCB.
— Shubman Gang (@ShubmanGang) May 6, 2023
Ganguly: pic.twitter.com/oLDnr6wSrb
— Anirban Ghoshᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠᅠ (@Anirban_Ghosh_) May 6, 2023
Virat Kohli should be given man of the match for scoring fifty in 46 balls and taking two wickets of inform maxi and faf
— KL Rahul (@klRahul__1) May 6, 2023
Virat Kohli can keep stat padding with a strike rate of 119 on a pitch where even batters from an out of form DC batting line up had a strike of 150+ and haarcb can keep losing. 3 cheers to DC ...
— Pooh (@ThodaYehThodaWo) May 6, 2023
Absolute thrashing! Dada had the last laugh
— Ajay AJ (@AjayTweets07) May 6, 2023
Vintage RCB is back 🔥
— Kalyan Babu Draksharam (@KDrakshram) May 6, 2023
DELHI CAPITALS CHASE DOWN 182 RUNS FROM JUST 16.4 OVERS.
— Rajhans (@im__rajhans) May 6, 2023
ONE OF THE BRUTAL CHASE EVER IN IPL.
These kind of losses make RCB fans enjoy their wins lesser. Either bowling fails or batting.
— TimeTravelelr (@MrMindvsHeart) May 6, 2023