Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) suffered a major loss away from home as Delhi Capitals (DC) batting lineup returned to its usual self and hammered RCB at home to win the match by seven wickets with 20 balls to spare on May 6 (Saturday). Phil Salt stood out of the lot with his Indian Premier League (IPL) career-best 45-ball 87 to dominate the Faf du Plessis-led side. Salt was exceptional as he hit the bowlers all around the park and tackled spinners by going on the back foot.
After the game, RCB captain Faf du Plessis credited DC batters for consistently putting pressure on his bowlers and not letting them get into any sort of rhythm.
"I thought we were pretty close to par. We thought 185 is a good score. But there was a little bit of dew in the second innings. But we have to give credit to their batters, they played really well. The pressure their batters put on the spinners led to some mistakes," du Plessis said after the match.
Du Plessis won the toss and opted to bat first. DC bowlers were economical in the first four overs. Du Plessis broke free in the fifth over with three boundaries off pacer Mukesh Kumar. The right-handed batter then hit Khaleel Ahmed for a six and a four. After powerplay overs, RCB were 51/0. The partnership continued but Virat Kohli and Du Plessis could not hit big in the middle overs.
The RCB captain underlined the importance of having a solid and reliable batter in the middle order who can capitalise on good starts and push the team's total further.
"We didn't maximise out innings. At about 12 overs, we felt like 185 was a par score. Obviously you like to have one of those big overs to take you to 200, which would have been a good score. But they made our bowlers sit back a little bit after the powerplay."
"We felt that we had a good enough foundation for Maxi to come in at three. Very pleased to see Lomror come in at No. 5 and play really well. It was very positive for him. Just hope that at No. 3, someone puts their hands up and scores a lot of runs. They pretty much broke the back of the chase in the first six, the way they were going," du Plessis said.
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