Twitter Reactions: DC outsmarts RCB; both teams ensure playoffs berth

Despite this being the penultimate game of the league stage, the fight for the Playoffs was just as alive as it was on day one. Both Royal Challengers Bangalore and Delhi Capitals were eyeing the spot of comfort – the second place on the table – by trouncing each other in the 55th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Winning the toss, the Capitals invited the Challengers to bat first. While the former brought in Ajinkya Rahane, Daniel Sams, and Axar Patel inside the eleven at the expense of Shimron Hetmyer Hasrhal Patel, and Pravin Dube, the latter made a couple of changes by including Shivam Dube and Shahbaz Ahmed after excluding Gurkeerat Singh and an unfit Navdeep Saini.

RCB’s watchful start

The Capitals’ bowlers started with discipline and ensured to give no freebies to the openers Devdutt Padikkal and Joshua Phillippe. While both the batsmen played the ball on merit, the pressure of not being able to exploit the field restrictions kept mounting over them. Struggling to middle the ball and not being able to make a move on, Phillippe (12 from 17) gave his wicket to Kagiso Rabada, who brought his wicket-less streak of two matches to an end on the very first ball of his spell.

The new man in was skipper Virat Kohli, who, too, was unable to get into flow straight away. While Padikkal continued milking runs from the other end, Kohli looked happy taking his time in the middle. A couple of fours got him into some rhythm, and he rotated the strike with good intent. Although, despite getting a life courtesy of a dropped catch by Nortje, Kohli (29 from 24) was unable to make it big, as he slogged Ashwin straight to Marcus Stoinis in the deep.

The struggle continued

The Challengers were not being able to find their mojo on the two-paced track, and continuous wickets did little help. A double-wicket over from Anrich Nortje – where he first knocked over the half-centurion Padikkal (50 from 41) and followed it by making Chris Morris edge one to wicket-keeper Pant – crumbled RCB’s momentum completely. Shivam Dube and AB de Villiers (35 from 21) added 33 for the fifth wicket, although they both perished in the 18th and 19th respectively, as RCB managed to post a below-par 152 at the loss of 7 wickets.

Early breakthrough for the Challengers  

The opening woes of DC continued as Mohammad Siraj swung one away and rattled opener Prithvi Shaw’s stumps after squaring him up. Although, what followed was a passage of extremely sensible, mature, and controlled play from two Indians – Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane. The duo drove, pulled, cut, and piled up an 88-run stand for the second wicket. Getting boundaries at regular intervals and milking singles with ease, it seemed that the two would take Delhi home with ease.

Although, Dhawan (54 from 41) in an attempt to scoop Shahbaz Ahmed, failed to connect properly and found Shivam Dube at a short fine leg. Despite the required run rate being well within their reach, skipper Shreyas Iyer, who was the new man in, got hurried up and gave Ahmed his second wicket.

Ajinkya Rahane (60 from 46), while reverse sweeping Washington Sundar got out on the second ball of the 17th over, although the score for Delhi, by then, had crossed 134, which meant that they were through to the playoffs. In came Marcus Stoinis and Rishabh Pant, who both steered their team to a win by 6 wickets with an over to spare. Although, once RCB took the game deeper than 18.2 overs, their spot on the playoff got stamped too.

Delhi Capitals goes to second means they meet Mumbai Indians in the first qualifier, whereas KKR will now pray that MI slams SRH tomorrow to clear their path.

Here are the best tweets from RCB vs DC game