- Home
- Sports
DD vs RCB: In final league game, Royal Challengers Bangalore end with a win
YB WEB DESK. Dated: 5/15/2017 1:21:39 AM
As Delhi Daredevils and Royal Challengers Bangalore drew curtains on the league phase of the tenth season of Indian Premier League, it was the visitors who prevailed in a thrilling encounter – courtesy of a clinical bowling performance. Chasing 162 to win, Delhi were bowled out for 151 on the final delivery of the match, handing Bangalore a 10-run win at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium.
This was Bangalore’s only third win of the season. They have 10 losses and a washout as well. They finished the IPL at the bottom of the points table. Delhi suffered their eighth defeat of this season and finished sixth in the points table with only 12 points.
The Bangalore bowlers did a great job in defending 161 runs as Harshal Patel and Pawan Negi led the charge. The former finished with three wickets for 43 runs while the spinner picked the same sumber of wickets for just 10 runs. Harshal’s double strike in one over proved to be the decisive factor as Delhi never recovered from the setback. Negi bowled the 18th and the final over and cleaned up the tail.
Meanwhile, the shot selection from some of the Delhi batsman left a lot to be desired. Only Rishabh Pant stood out with a gritty 45 of 34 balls, whereas the others faltered. None of the other batsmen gave him company in the middle and frequent wickets only increased the asking rate.
Earlier, the dead rubber came alight thanks to some fireworks from the bat of Virat Kohli who brought up his fourth half-century of the season. Riding on his batting performance, Bangalore posted a competitive total of 161/6 on a dry pitch at Kotla. At one point RCB looked set for a score above 180 – when Gayle and Kohli were at the crease. But, the dismissal of Gayle in the 14th over & then Kohli in the 17th pegged things back. However, a flurry of boundaries by Negi towards the end helped them to a respectable total.
For Delhi, Pat Cummins was the stand out performer with the ball as he bowled a fiery spell of four overs for just 21 runs and bagged 2 wickets. Most importantly he bowled 10 dot balls. Zaheer Khan & Mohammad Shami supported him ably and kept the scoreboard in check.
Delhi Daredevils too would have been looking for a bright start but did not capitalise on a relatively inexperienced RCB bowling unit. Youngster Avesh Khan made inroads in the first over itself when he sent Sanju Samson back in the hut