Bengaluru: A late fightback from Delhi Daredevils restricted Royal Challengers Bangalore to a challenging 191/5 in their Indian Premier League clash here on Sunday.
En route to the second highest total of the season, hosts skipper Virat Kohli (79, 48b, 7x4, 3x6) and AB de Villiers (55, 33b, 9x4, 1x6) struck fifties each to post a commendable total on the board.
Opting to bowl first on a batting surface, visitor skipper Zaheer Khan had the dangerous Chris Gayle for naught in the third ball of the innings. JP Duminy dived to his left to latch on to a stunner at second slip to send the Caribbean ace packing.
With Gayle failing with the willow for the second time in a row, it was once again on the shoulders of de Villiers and Kohli to entertain a packed M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
Continuing their splendid association from the previous game that accumulated 157 runs for the second wicket, de Villiers-Kohli swiftly added 63 runs in the Powerplay.
At the end of the ninth over, Daredevils’ bowlers were smashed around the park as de Villiers raced to his second fifty of the summer off just 25 balls. But the 65-ball 107-run second-wicket partnership ended after Carlos Braithwaite had de Villiers caught at long on.
Given a crucial breakthrough, Shane Watson (33, 19b, 2x4, 3x6) joined the free-flowing Kohli to continue punishing Daredevils’ bowling attack. In the 16th over, Zaheer completed his quota but gave away 21 runs as RCB crossed the 150-mark.
Experienced Mohammed Shami returned for his second spell to strike twice. Sporting a Mohawk, Shami’s bouncer had Watson and later got the youngster Sarfaraz Khan runout.
Following Kohli’s dismissal the scoring rate hit the skids. Boundaries were hard to find for the RCB lower order as Chris Morris and Shami bowled smart at death.
RCB just managed 27 runs off the last four overs but the heroics of Kohli and de Villiers had steered to a defendable target.
