Delhi Capitals finished victorious in the all-important 55th match of IPL 2020. With this win the Capitals qualified for the playoffs and ensured their second position in the table. They will now play the first qualifier against the table-toppers Mumbai Indians for a spot in the final. Even a loss will give them another chance to take a shot at the final. For Royal Challengers Bangalore this is their fourth consecutive loss, but they did just enough to ensure that their Net Run Rate remains above Kolkata Knight Riders to ensure the third position. They will now play the first eliminator against either KKR or Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Lack of pace in the RCB innings
RCB had a wonderful chance to score big and put pressure on DC during the chase. But they again failed to push the run-rate and finished with only 152/ 7. Devdutt Padikkal impressed again as the youngster for Karnataka reached another fifty and took his run-tally to 472 in his first IPL season.
Source: Twitter (IPL)
Among other batsmen, Virat Kohli scored 29 off 24 and AB de Villiers 35 off 21 as most of the lower-middle order was blown away by Anrich Nortje who finished with 3 for 33. His compatriot Kagiso Rabada finished with 2 for 30 and now reached 25 wickets to keep the top spot in the Purple cap race. Ravichandran Ashwin also bowled masterfully to contain the RCB batsmen and finished with conceding just 18 runs in his 4 overs while picking up one wicket.
Capitals chase was led by experience
Delhi Capitals included both Prithvi Shaw and Ajinkya Rahane together for the first time in the season. This provided them better stability in the batting order and proved as a key decision. Although the youngster was dismissed for 9 but Rahane (60) and Shikhar Dhawan (54) built a brilliant partnership of 88 runs in 11 overs to ensure a victory for Capitals.
Source: Twitter (IPL)
Even at one stage, it looked like they may complete the chase within 17.3 overs which would ensure RCB’s elimination in the group stage. However, once Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, and Rahane were out in quick succession this possibility was gone. However, still, Capitals won quite comfortably with one over to spare as Rishabh Pant and Marcus Stoinis took them to victory.