Feeble DC batting dismantled by RCB seamers
DC – 75 (Bhuvneshwar Kumar 5/3 off 3 overs, Josh Hazlewood 12/4 off 3.3 overs) lost to RCB – 77/1 (6.3) (Devdutt Padikkal 34 off 13 balls) by 9 wickets
Man of the Match: Josh Hazlewood
The 39th IPL league match between DC and RCB in Delhi turned into a letdown as the DC batting lineup imploded against a high-class exhibition of swing and seam bowling by RCB. After the run fest against PBKS a couple of nights ago on the same ground, the DC team would have hoped their bowling would fare better against another in-form team. However, after being put in to bat first, the batting collapsed in such spectacular fashion that the match was effectively over by the first innings. DC managed to stumble to 75, which was overcome by the RCB top order with minimum fuss and the loss of only 1 wicket.
RCB opening bowlers wreak havoc
RCB has two wonderful opening bowlers in Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood, and they made great use of the early swing and seam movement generally seen in the initial part of the evening matches. Bhuvaneshwar started the carnage with the second ball of the innings, as Sahil Parakh’s stumps were flattened with a devastating in-swinging yorker. Sahil was playing his first IPL match and did not trouble the scorers.
Hazlewood was right on the money with his first ball to Rahul, as he managed to extract extra bounce that got big on the batsman. Rahul, fresh from a flamboyant century in the last match, went for the pull and managed to get a top edge, which was safely pouched by the keeper. The next ball was wide and full, and Sameer Rizvi tried to drive it but got an outside edge and was caught behind by the keeper. DC were reeling at 2/3 within the second over.
DC has a topsy-turvy batting lineup with their best batsmen either at the top or in the lower middle order. This leaves a soft underbelly in the top / middle order, which was properly exploited by the RCB bowlers. In this match, David Miller came in to bat at no. 8. Leaving a bona fide international batsman to bat so low seemed to make absolutely no sense.
Tristan Stubbs poked uncertainly at a Bhuvaneshwar Kumar outswinger and nicked straight to first slip. Axar Patel came in next and should have been bowled on the second ball he faced as the ball scraped the off stump without dislodging the stump bails. The sound of the ball hitting the stump confused everybody, and RCB wasted a review thinking there was an outside edge. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar was not to be denied, though, as the very next ball caught the bottom edge of Axar’s bat and was smartly caught by the wicket keeper. This was proper test match bowling, and the DC batsmen had no answer to that.
Five wickets were down, and DC used their impact sub to bring in another batsman in Abishek Porel. RCB were operating with an extra fielder inside the ring to put extra pressure on the batsmen. Nitish Rana, who never looked comfortable, was surprised by a Hazlewood bouncer and fended it off, the ball hitting the bat handle and lobbed up to be caught by slip. He had scored 1 off 9 balls. Only 5 runs were conceded in the last three overs of the powerplay, and the final powerplay score of 13/6 was the lowest ever in the history of the IPL. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar had scarcely believable figures of 5 runs in his 3 overs for 3 wickets.
Slight respite for DC, but wickets keep tumbling
Once Rasikh Salam and Romario Shepherd came in to bowl, batting became much easier. Miller hit a confident boundary towards deep midwicket and then a lofted straight drive over Rasikh’s next ball to bring some kind of momentum to the innings. These shots highlighted the fact that this was a pretty good batting track, and the wickets have been a result of some pretty good bowling from RCB and not too impressive batting from DC.
In the same over, trying to repeat the shot over midwicket, Miller mistimed a pull and the ball took a top edge to give Jitesh Sharma his fourth catch of the match. Miller departed for 19 off 18 balls, and his partnership of 35 runs off 31 balls with Porel remained the highest partnership for DC.
Play was held up for some time due to a dust storm, and though it stayed on for some time with reduced intensity, play commenced again. Shepherd bowled 2 overs and gave away 21 runs. Then the spinners Krunal Pandya and Suyash Sharma came in to put the pressure back on the DC batters, and their combined 6 overs cost 16 runs for 2 wickets. 9 wickets down, Hazelwood came back into the attack and cleaned up Porel with a pacy yorker and finished with 4 wickets, giving away only 12 runs. Porel, who fought well, was the top scorer for DC, making 30 in 33 balls.
RCB make short work of the meagre total
Jacob Bethell joined Kohli at the top of the innings. Looking to up the ante and finish the match in a hurry, he crunched two enormous sixes off short balls by Jameson over deep midwicket, the second one measured at 104 m. Jameson then bowled a slower, fuller ball, which was mishit high towards long on. Natarajan took a fantastic running catch over his shoulder, and the momentum almost took him over the boundary, but he controlled himself beautifully and managed to bring himself from the brink of the boundary cushions. The first wicket fell at 26, and Devdutt Padikkal, in fine form, came to the crease.
Padikkal seemed to continue with the same flow as his previous innings. His third ball, he unfurled a gorgeous lofted cover drive for a six off Chameera. Always a promising batsman, earlier, he seemed to take some time to settle in before going for his shots. Recently, he seems to have discovered a newer gear and keeps the strike rate high throughout the innings. Next over, Jameson was taken to the cleaners. Padikkal got on top of the bowling as the ball was hit to all parts, flicking and pulling on the leg side and the spectacular lofted shots on the off side for 21 runs. He remained unbeaten on 34 off 13 balls.
Initially, Kohli batted more sedately. He started with a delightful lofted straight drive for four off Chameera. Later, he was more content to be on the non-striker’s end. However, his running was uncharacteristically hesitant today. Firstly, he almost got run out to a misfield, but the fielder missed the direct hit required. Then he ran for a non-existent single and almost got Padikkal run out, only for wicketkeeper KL Rahul to botch up the chance by failing to gather the throw from the fielder.
Kohli was on 11 off 12 balls at the end of the power play. With 11 runs required, he decided to complete the task with two sixers off Natarajan, the first one a straight hit and the second one smoked high majestically over deep midwicket.
RCB had a near-perfect game and would be delighted with the huge boost in net run rate after this match. DC, on the other hand, are languishing in the bottom half of the table and need to recalibrate their batting combination for pitches that have something in them for the bowlers. They had started the season promisingly, but since the 1-run defeat to Gujarat Titans, they have fallen off and need a quick turnaround if they want to make it to the playoffs.