IPL 2019: IPL 2019: Rabada, Iyer hands RCB its double-hattrick defeat

Bengaluru: Kasigo Rabada’s four-for before a 50-ball 67 from Delhi Capitals skipper Shreyas Iyer defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by four wickets here at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday.

Delhi are placed at fifth place in the IPL points table with three wins and as many defeats, while Bangalore faced its sixth straight loss to remain at the bottom.

Chasing a tricky target of 150, Delhi faced an early hiccup in the very first over of the run-chase. Tim Southee got opener Shikhar Dhawan caught at point for a first-ball duck.

However, Prithvi Shaw and Iyer hammered Bangalore bowlers with their 68-run stand under nine overs to well place Delhi.

Pawan Negi sent Shaw back for 28, which included four consecutive boundaries. Iyer blossomed another brief partnership worth 39 runs with Colin Ingram (22) to comfortably cross the 100-run mark.

The chief contributor Iyer smashed two sixes and eight boundaries in his 50-ball 67 before Navdeep Saini denied him to finish. The dismissal of Delhi skipper triggered the loss of two wickets — Rishabh Pant (18) and Chris Morris (0) — in quick succession when the visitors required just five runs from 17 balls.

Axar Patel hit the winning boundary to take Delhi over the line with seven balls to spare.

Earlier, Bangalore put into bat, lost explosive top-order in the Power Play overs. The host were reduced to 40 for two after Parthiv Patel (9) gave a simple catch to Sandeep Lamichhane off Morris and big hitter AB de Villiers (17) was caught at long-on off Rabada.

Despite having skipper Virat Kohli at one end, the fragile middle-order stood exposed. Marcus Stoinis and Kohli retrieved the innings, adding 26, but Axar Patel dismissed Stoinis for 15.

Just when a decent total seemed difficult, Moeen Ali’s 18-ball 32, which included three sixes, boosted the host midway through the innings before Delhi pulled things back as Lamichhane got Ali caught behind, leaving Bangalore at 103 for the loss of four.

Kohli and Akashdeep Nath in the middle combined 30 runs to give their bowlers something to defend. However, Rabada tilted the game in favour of Delhi as he got rid of Kohli (41), Akashdeep (19) and Pawan Negi (0) in the 18th over.

The South African bowler with 11 wickets from six games so far, went past Yuzvendra Chahal, who has nine wickets from six outings under his belt, to bag the purple cap for the most wickets.

Morris picked up his second wicket in Mohammed Siraj (1) to restrict Bangalore on 149 for the loss of eight.

Delhi and Bangalore will fly to play against Kolkata Knight Riders on April 12 and Kings XI Punjab on April 13, respectively.

Brief scores: Delhi Capitals 152/6 (SS Iyer 67, PP Shaw 28, NA Saini 2-24) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 149/8 (V Kohli 41, MM Ali 32, K Rabada 4-21, CH Morris 2-28) by four wickets.