Capitals beat Kohli´s RCB to seal play-off place
Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer blasted half-centuries as Delhi Capitals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs to seal an Indian Premier League play-off place.
Dhawan and Iyer made 50 and 52 respectively off 37 balls to set the Capitals on their way to an imposing total of 187-5 at Feroz Shah Kotla Ground on Sunday.
Parthiv Patel (39 off 20 balls) and Virat Kohli (23 from 17) got RCB off to a flyer as they chased a fourth consecutive win, but the Capitals stuck to the task and got their rewards.
Kagiso Rabada and Amit Mishra took two wickets apiece to put RCB on the back foot and they fell short on 171-7.
Victory for the Capitals put them top of the table and guaranteed a top-four spot with two matches of the regular season to play, becoming only the second team to qualify along with Chennai Super Kings.
RCB stay bottom as they pay the price for such a poor start to the tournament.
That’s that from Delhi as the @DelhiCapitals win by 16 runs and are through to the Playoffs pic.twitter.com/KtxeYqEwUY— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 28, 2019
DHAWAN AND IYER LAY THE PLATFORM
Dhawan and Iyer laid the foundations for the Capitals with a second-wicket stand of 68 after Umesh Yadav snared Prithvi Shaw caught behind for 18 in the fourth over.
The powerful Dhawan used his feet superbly, scoring freely on both sides of the wicket and bringing up a third consecutive half-century off 36 balls before he was caught at short fine leg off Yuzvendra Chahal.
Iyer came down the track twice to loft Chahal for six for a 50 of his own, with Sherfane Rutherford (28 not out off 13) producing some late fireworks after Washington Sundar removed the captain.
DOUBLE MISHRA BLOW ROCKS RCB
Patel and Kohli put on 63 for the first wicket in a promising start to the run chase before Rabada saw the back of the former with the penultimate ball of the sixth over.
The excellent Axar Patel claimed the big wicket of Kohli – caught in the deep – and AB de Villiers fell for 17 to leave Bangalore 103-3 in the 12th.
Spinner Mishra (2-29) then dismissed Heinrich Klaasen and Shivam Dube in the 13th over to make it very much advantage Delhi.
DELHI BOWLERS DELIVER AT THE DEATH
Gurkeerat Singh cut loose with a flurry of boundaries to leave RCB needing 36 to win from three overs as the nerves jangled.
Rabada (2-31) conceded only six runs from the 18th with some great variation and Gurkeerat (27 from 19) fell caught behind in a brilliant penultimate over from Ishant Sharma.
RCB needed 26 off the last to win it and that was never going to be likely with Rabada charging in, the South Africa quick claiming the wicket of Sundar before a huge six from Marcus Stoinis (32no off 24), which was struck when the game was all-but over.
