Royal Challengers Bengaluru ripped through Delhi Capitals with a brutal bowling show on Monday and sealed a crushing nine wicket win in the IPL.
Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar destroyed Delhi in the first four overs. They shared six wickets and left Delhi reeling at 8 for 6. The match was almost over before it truly began.
Delhi somehow avoided the IPL’s lowest total of 49. They also went past their own lowest score of 66 before being bowled out for just 75 in 16.3 overs.
“Even I don’t know what happened,” said Delhi captain Axar Patel. “That’s why they say you have to be on your toes in cricket. We have to move on from this match.”
Bengaluru chose to bowl first and struck instantly. Bhuvneshwar removed opener Sahil Parakh for a duck with the second ball.
Hazlewood then ripped through the top order. He dismissed last match centurion KL Rahul for one and Sameer Rizvi in the same over.
“I just followed Bhuvi,” said Hazlewood, who finished with 4 for 12.
“There was a little bit there in the first six overs. It was a little bit up and down.”
Bhuvneshwar then removed Tristan Stubbs and Axar Patel as Delhi’s batting collapsed badly on the same ground where they had scored 264 in their previous match.
Abishek Porel made 30 while David Miller scored 19 in a small fightback.
A brief dust storm stopped play for around 10 minutes before Delhi’s innings finally ended.
Virat Kohli thrilled his home crowd with an unbeaten 23 and crossed 9,000 IPL runs. Devdutt Padikkal smashed 34 not out as Bengaluru chased down the target in only 6.3 overs.
The defending champions stayed second in the table behind Punjab Kings.
