With their six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bengaluru at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday evening, Delhi Capitals handed the defending champions just their second loss of this IPL season. With RCB openers Virat Kohli and Phil Salt just managing 34 runs in the first four overs and the ball not coming onto the bat nicely on the Chinnaswamy pitch, it took some time for the Bengaluru innings to gain momentum. RCB would set a target of 176 runs eventually, with Salt playing a knock of 63 runs before Delhi Capitals scored a last-over win as David Miller hit Romario Shepherd for two sixes and a boundary in the last over. The Capitals too had lost three wickets in the Powerplay, and wicket-keeper KL Rahul spoke about how the likes of Kohli and Salt too did not seem happy with the way the ball was coming on and how the wicket did a little bit early in both innings. “The wicket did a little bit early on. I could see Virat and Phil Salt not happy with the way the ball was coming on. Us losing three wickets in the first six overs didn’t make it easy for us. So yeah, it was, I think all in all a really good cricket game,” Rahul said in the post-match presentation. With RCB posting a target of 176 runs, Delhi lost three wickets at the score of 18 runs in 2.5 overs. Pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar removed Pathum Nissanka, Karun Nair and Sameer Rizvi in his first two overs before Rahul and Tristan Stubbs stitched together a 69-run partnership for the fourth wicket. Rahul spoke about how the pair conversed about playing good cricket shots and aim to put the pressure on the bowlers post the loss of three wickets. “The conversation was to continue to play good cricket shots and see how we can find boundaries and how we can still put pressure on the bowlers. We didn’t want to go into our shell and then the run rate keeps climbing up, it gets harder and harder towards the end. We saw that when we bowled as well, when there was a little bit of reverse swing as well and the opposition had some really good death bowlers as well. So we didn’t want to take it too deep. We just wanted to stay in the moment, take it one over at a time and try and put pressure on the bowlers. And yeah, Tristan Stubbs hit some good shots. I hit some good shots. As it turned out, it did go quite deep,” shared Rahul. With the fall of KL Rahul in the 11th over, Delhi Capitals needed 89 runs off the 9.5 overs. With Axar Patel retiring out in the 16th over, Stubbs was joined by David Miller and team needing 42 runs from 25 balls. Stubbs and Miller took the score to 161 for 4 in 19 overs. With Capitals needing 15 runs in the last over, RCB skipper Rajat Patidar gave the ball to Romario Shepherd. With Capitals needing 13 runs off four balls, Miller hit Shepherd for two sixes and one four off the next three balls to take Capitals home and hand the Bengaluru side their second loss of the season. Rahul shared how the team had faith in Stubbs and Miler. “No nervousness at the end, there was faith in Stubbs and Miller. They do this on a daily basis for South Africa and franchise cricket. So, we also knew that the last two overs were going to be a gamble for RCB as well. And we knew that probably Romario Shepherd will bowl or maybe Suyash Sharma will bowl, which gives our batters a good chance to hit two sixes in the last two overs. So yeah, ideally we wouldn’t have wanted it to go till the 20th over, but we’ll take the win,” Rahul said.
‘I could see Virat and Phil Salt not happy with the ball…’: KL Rahul on Chinnaswamy pitch
