Delhi: A great bowling effort and some valuable contribution from Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas, all-round Delhi Capitals thrashed Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs in an Indian Premier League encounter on Sunday, here at the Feroz Shah Kotla.
Chasing a mammoth total of 188 runs on the unexpected and changing ground of Kotla, RCB openers Parthiv Patel along with his skipper Virat Kohli gave the visitors a flying start by putting up 63 runs stand for the first wicket during the powerplay.
Kagiso Rabada broke Patel and Kohli's partnership by sending the wicket-keeper batsman back to stands on the last ball of the powerplay. And soon Axar Patel removed Kohli from the attack.
AB de Villiers and Shivam Dube joined forces in 8th over to put RCB back on track. However, Sherfane Rutherford removed the explosive South African cricketer before he could inspire a fight back.
Amit Mishra put Delhi on driving seat by removing Dube and Heinrich Klaasen in a single over.
After 11th overs, RCB was reeling at 111 for 5 in 13th over, when Marcus Stoinis walked to bat at number seven.
Gurkeerat Singh Mann smashed 27 runs off 19 balls before Rishabh pant took a breathtaking catch off Ishant Sharma's bowling to dismiss the RCB cricketer.
Earlier, fifties from senior DC opener Shikhar Dhawan and Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer helped the hosts team to post a fighting total of 187 runs for the loss of five wickets.
Iyer opted to bat first after winning the toss and their opener gave them a decent start by putting up a 35-runs stand in just 3.3 overs for the first wicket.
Umesh Yadav gave RCB their first breakthrough by removing Prithvi Shaw from the attack.
Skipper Iyer joined in-form Shikhar Dhawan at the crease after the departure of Shaw. The duo added 68 runs for the second as DC crossed the mark of 100 runs in 12 runs.
Yuzvendra Chahal dismissed Dhawan moments after the Delhi-lad completed his half-century.
Batting at number four, Pant joined his captain in 15th over, however, the wicket-keeper batsman was not able to much damage as Chahal trapped him in front of the wickets.
Washington Sundar put RCB on the driving seat by sending Iyer back to stand in 16th over.
Colin Ingram walked to bat at number five and hit a four and a six before Navdeep Saini got better of him.
Sherfane Rutherford and Axar Patel joined forces in 17th over and inspired a fightback as DC posted a fighting total of runs despite the middle-order collapse.
Rutherford played a cameo of 28 runs off 13 balls, while Axar scored 16 runs in nine balls.
For RCB, Yuzvendra Chahal picked two wickets and conceded 41 runs. Navdeep Saini, Sundar and Umesh picked one wicket each.
For Delhi, Amit Mishra and Kagiso Rabada bagged two wickets each. Ishant Sharma, Axar Patel and Sherfane Rutherford picked one wicket each.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 187/5 in 20 overs (Shreyas Iyer 52, Shikhar Dhawan 50; Yuzvendra Chahal 2/41) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 171/7 (Parthiv Patel 39, Marcus Stoinis 32; Amit Mishra 2/29)
