All-round display takes Bangalore Royals up, beat Delhi by 16 runs

Mumbai, April 16: Dinesh Karthik’s 66 not out off 34 followed by Josh Hazlewood and Mohammed Siraj’s brilliance with the ball helped Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to beat Delhi Capitals (DC) by 16 runs in an IPL fixture here at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday. Karthik’s crucial knock and Glenn Maxwell (55 off 34) helped RCB to post 189/5. In reply, Hazlewood (3/28) and Siraj (2/31) shared five wickets to restrict DC to 173/7 despite David Warner’s 66 off 38. Delhi got off to a blazing start, with openers Prithvi Shaw and Warner’s quire-fire knocks taking the side to 50 runs in just 4.3 overs. However, on the next ball, Siraj removed Shaw for 16. Warner was joined by his Australian teammate Mitchell Marsh. While Warner continued with his power-hitting, Marsh on the other end was struggling to middle the ball. Warner raced to his fifty off just 29 balls. Wanindu Hasaranga got the big breakthrough as the leg-spinner trapped Warner (66) lbw and then ran out Marsh on the non-striker’s end. Rishabh Pant hit straight drive but Hasaranga sticked out his hand to stop the ball and his finger touched it before rolling onto the stumps. Hazlewood rattled the middle-order, dismissing Rovman Powell (0) and Lalit Yadav (1) and reducing DC to 115/5. While Pant and Shardul Thakur were in the middle, DC’s hopes were still alive. However, Siraj returned to pick up the wicket of Pant (34) and Hazlewood got rid of Shardul (17). With asking run rate climbing, Axar Patel (10 not out) and Kuldeep Yadav (10 not out) couldn’t save their side and DC’s ship eventually sunk. Earlier in the day, RCB had a horrendous start after being put into bat, losing both openers Anuj Rawat and Faf du Plessis cheaply in the Powerplay. Shardul trapped Rawat for a duck in the second over, and Khaleel Ahmed took du Plessis (8) out of the contest just when he was about to accelerate. An incredible piece of fielding by Lalit Yadav ended Virat Kohli’s innings for 12. Maxwell took the responsibility and shrugged off some pressure as the Australian hammered Kuldeep for 23 runs, including two sixes and two fours. Kuldeep took revenge as he bagged the crucial wicket of Maxwell for 55. The Australian looked to go big but ended up giving an easy catch to Lalit at long-on. Incoming Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed then lifted RCB with their aggressive approach. Karthik, who was dropped on 5, took a little while to get into his role of being the ‘finisher’. But once set, Karthik clobbered Mustafizur Rahman for 28 runs. The 18th over saw four boundaries and two maximums. All the while Shahbaz Ahmed who was playing second fiddle also started taking DC bowlers to cleaners. Karthik and Shahbaz finished on 66 not out and 31 not out, respectively. For DC, Mustafizur (0/48) and Kuldeep (1/46) returned as the costliest bowlers. (UNI)