IPL 2022, DC vs RCB, Top Performances: Dinesh Karthik’s 66*, Mohammed Siraj’s 2-31 and David Warner’s 66 are top performances. RCB move to 3rd place in IPL points table.
Brief Scores: RCB 189-5 (Karthik 66*, Maxwell 55, Thakur 1-27) beat DC 173-7 (Warner 66, Pant 34, Hazelwood 3-28, Siraj 2-31) by 16 runs
Player of the Match: Dinesh Karthik (66 off 34 balls)
Match 27 of Tata IPL 2022 saw Delhi Capitals (DC) face off against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) at Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night.
Delhi have got the better of RCB on 16 occasions out of the 29 matches where they have come face to face. Coming into this match, RCB were one of the six teams on six points and a win tonight would be taking them to the top three. While on the other hand, Delhi Capitals were coming off a victory against Kolkata Knight Riders in their last game.
Having won the toss, Delhi captain Rishabh Pant decided to bowl first. DC handed a debut cap to Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh who replaced Sarfaraz Khan while RCB welcomed back Harshal Patel in place of Akash Deep.
RCB triumph over Delhi Capitals
RCB started in a dodgy fashion, losing their first wicket in the second over of the innings, and were struggling at 42 for 3 at the seven over mark which has been a problem for them this year. Maxwell who was looking to up the ante started licking his lips as he saw Kuldeep Yadav come over considering the shorter boundaries on the leg side. Maxi smashed two sixes and two fours and scored 23 runs putting pressure on Kuldeep in his very first over to shift the momentum in RCB’s favour.
Maxwell who was playing his 100th IPL game, was dismissed after a well-made fifty. After Maxi’s dismissal, RCB’s best duo this season was on the crease – Dinesh Karthik and Shahbaz Ahmed. They started off in their typical fashion knocking the ones and twos and hitting the odd boundaries off bad deliveries. Shifting to sports mode, DK and Ahmed took the DC bowlers to the cleaners in the death overs, scoring 69 runs from the last 24 balls.
Dinesh Karthik along with Shahbaz helped RCB post 189 runs, which was the highest score this year at the Wankhede Stadium. Ahmed and DK’s 97-run undefeated stand was also the third highest 6th wicket partnership in IPL history.
Chasing a mammoth score of 189, DC were off to a flyer with 45 runs in just four overs. While David Warner took on the RCB bowlers, Prithvi Shaw played second fiddle before being dimissed by Mohammed Siraj off a slower off-cutter.
Shaw’s wicket didn’t stop Warner’s momentum, as he was taking the chase on like a one-man army. Warner soon brought up his fifty off just 29 balls; this was his 10th fifty against RCB and his second highest against a particular opponent (he has 11 fifties against PBKS). After Warner was dismissed for 66, Rishabh Pant took the baton from Warner but his innings of 34 wasn’t enough to take Delhi over the line as Siraj and Josh Hazlewood took crucial wickets in the middle, stopping the flow of runs for DC which helped RCB get those crucial two points and move to third place in the points table.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the game between DC and RCB.
Dinesh K’ARTISTIC’ Innings (66 not out of 34 deliveries)
At the 12-over mark, where it was looking like the game was slipping away from RCB with 95 runs on the board with half of their side back in the pavilion, came Dinesh ‘Finisher’ Karthik. He began slowly, scoring at a strike rate of under 50 (6 off 12 balls). Karthik was gifted a life when he had scored just 5 runs as the Delhi captain Pant dropped a caught behind chance of DK off the bowling of Kuldeep, when the RCB score was just 102. And boy! DK made them pay, quite heavily at that. Dinesh Karthik who has scored 87 runs in 41 balls in the death overs until today’s game during this IPL was in no mood to look back after that dropped catch. DK and his liking for Bangladeshi bowlers is well-known and he took on Mustafizur Rahman this time in the 17th over. The first ball went for a top-edged four off an attempted lap shot. DK was just waiting for Mustafizur to go to his variations, as the slower balls are Rahman’s go to delivery under pressure. DK switch hit the second ball for four off the third-man boundary. The off-side heavy field setup for the next delivery gave DK a clue of the next ball and Karthik was just waiting for it as he clobbered that slower ball outside off-stump towards the cover boundary for another four.
After two consecutive slower balls being smacked for boundaries, everyone on earth along with DK was waiting for Mustafizur to bowl seam up and Karthik capitalized on the seam up ball for a flat straight six. Fizz was clearly under pressure with DC players walking up to him to cool him before the next ball. The entire Wankhede was echoing “DK, DK, DK” and the batter didn’t disappoint them either, smacking another straight six this time a bit further than the previous one and it was carnage at the Wankhede Stadium with the crowd going berserk.
Mustafizur tried to squeeze in a yorker in the last ball of his spell and the last ball of the 18th over but the form Karthik was in, he timed the ball perfectly just inches wide from the mid off fielder for another boundary. A total of 28 runs were scored off the 18th over, where every ball that Fizz bowled saw the boundary cushions or was deposited into the crowd. DK’s innings of 66 not out of 34 balls, which included five maximums and five fours, was the difference between a score of 150 and a match-winning 189.
Read More: IPL 2022, CSK vs RCB, Top Performances: Uthappa 88, Dube 95*, Theekshana’s 4-33 give CSK first win
David Warner’s counter-attack (66 off just 38 balls)
The fearsome Australian opener was in no mood to hand over an easy win to RCB, as he was off the blocks from the very first ball of his innings, smacking his fellow Aussie Glenn Maxwell for a maximum. While Shaw was struggling to time the ball, David Warner was timing the ball as sweetly as “Delhi’s famous rabri jalebi”.
Warner was collecting boundaries off every over and he took on himself to win the game for DC as he smashed his 10th fifty against RCB with this one coming off just 29 deliveries. No matter who the bowler was from Hazlewood to Wanindu Hasaranga to Siraj, Warner was at his vintage best at the Wankhede Stadium. As another Australian – Mitchell Marsh – joined Warner after Shaw’s dismissal, it kind of stopped the flow of runs for DC. Marsh was finding it hard to middle the ball as he looked rusty coming off an injury. Marsh’s rusty innings and the ever so creeping required run rate put pressure on the free-flowing Warner which forced him to manufacture a reverse sweep off Hasaranga resulting in him throwing his wicket after a well made 66 off just 38 deliveries which consisted of five maximums and four boundaries.
Read More: IPL 2022, KKR vs DC, Top Performances: Shaw 51, Warner 61, Kuldeep’s 4-35 help DC move to 6th place
Siraj’s two crucial breakthroughs (2-31)
Mohammed Siraj did exactly what he has been known for in the previous few seasons – picking up crucial wickets! While the chase was on and DC were scoring freely over 10 runs per over till the fourth over, RCB captain Faf du Plessis called upon Siraj for his second over to give him a breakthrough. Siraj didn’t disappoint either as he picked up Shaw with a brilliant off-cutter, breaking the dangerous opening stand of 50 runs off just 28 balls.
Siraj was bowling good economical spells thereafter, which made life difficult for the DC batters as they had to up the ante to stay in the hunt. After Hazlewood picked up two wickets in a span of five balls, the onus was on Rishabh Pant to finish the game for Delhi. Pant was just getting into his own smashing 19 runs in the 16th over.
There were 56 runs needed off the final four overs and the equation was fairly achievable with the dangerous Pant still at the crease. Faf called upon Mohammed Siraj in search of a wicket and the bowler did exactly that. After being plundered for a huge six over deep mid-wicket off the second ball of the 17th over, Siraj had the last laugh who attempted a slow and wide yorker which ended as a full-toss but as it was wide off the stumps, Rishabh couldn’t get the power behind it and the crowd cheered their lungs out as Virat Kohli took a one-handed screamer of a catch to dismiss DC’s captain. Pant’s dismissal was the final nail in the coffin as far as DC’s chase was concerned.
IPL 2022 Points Table
What’s to come
Another Super Sunday double-header is coming our way with Punjab Kings taking on the Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Navi Mumbai in the afternoon and the table-toppers Gujarat Titans will go one-on-one against five-times IPL champions Chennai Super Kings at the Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) Stadium in Pune in the evening game.
Here are some of the top twitter reactions from DC vs RCB game, Tata IPL 2022:
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