Bengaluru: Virat Kohli's fifty and debutant Vijaykumar Vyshak's 3/20 helped Royal Challengers Bangalore to defeat Delhi Capitals by 23 runs at Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday.
Sent into bat, Bangalore scored 174/6 despite Kohli scoring exactly fifty runs. In reply, Delhi could muster up only 151/9 in 20 overs.
This was scintillating stuff from Bangalore seamers who shared six wickets among themselves. Mohammad Siraj picked up two wickets for 23 runs and Wayne Parnell scalped one for 28.
Even the spinner and medium pacer were among the wickets with Wanindu Hasaranga and Harshal Patel bagging one wicket each, respectively.
Delhi were reduced to 4/3 in the powerplay with Siraj and Parnell doing the damage by removing Yash Dhull for one and Mitchell Marsh for a duck, respectively.
And then Vyshak produced a brilliant spell on debut as he got rid of a dangerous-looking David Warner who scored 19 off 13 balls with four boundaries, before packing off in-form Axar Patel for 21 off 14 balls with three boundaries.
Manish Pandey's wicket was the final nail in the innings of Delhi as he was trapped plumb by Hasaranga who had a colourless game until then. Pandet scored a valiant 50 off 38 balls with five boundaries and a six.
The pitch was different from the one the match was played against Mumbai Indians. It was on a slower side, and Delhi, whose top batsmen are struggling to get going, failed to up the ante.
Things are looking grim for Delhi after losing all the five games.
Earlier, three quick wickets on 132 runs shattered the momentum of the hosts between the 12th and 14th over, and a few surprising moves, sending Harshal up at No.5 and using Anuj Rawat as an Impact Player deprived the services of Hasaranga and Parnell.
Kohli started off in the power play once again, and Faf du PLessis played some delightful shots before falling to a stunning catch by Aman Khan at mid-wicket off right-arm off-break bowler Lalit Yadav.
Kohli and Mahipal Lomror took to cleaners Mustafizur Rahman, belting 19 off his second over. The opener got another fifty, but was caught by Yash Dhull to Lalit's full toss after making 50 off 34 balls (6x4s 1x6).
Glenn Maxwell walked in and took apart Delhi spinners as he scored 24 off 14 balls with three maximums.
Maxwell was caught by David Warner off right-arm leggie Kuldeep Yadav when the score was 132/5. Thereafter, the run rate of the hosts dropped as they lost three wickets in two overs.
Dinesh Karthik too got out for another duck. (UNI)