Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) have registered yet another victory over Delhi Daredevils (DD) in the last match of the league stage of IPL 2016, which was a virtual knockout game. They have not only qualified for the playoff stages but will also feature in the first qualifier in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
RCB thrashed the Daredevils by six wickets and yet again skipper Virat Kohli was involved with his bat as he orchestrated the run chase.
However, DD started of well with the ball as Chris Morris and captain Zaheer Khan picked up two early wickets and that too the likes of Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers.
That put a lot of pressure on the visting team but Kohli was cool as a cucumber. He continued to play his natural game throughout the innings and made sure that his side go over the line.
Kohli built a wonderful partnership with KL Rahul and the duo added 67 runs in tandem.
Rahul was the aggressor in that partnership and was striking the ball extremely well until he was dismissed for 38 from 23 balls by Carlos Brathwaite in an unfortunate fashion.
Shane Watson also got out soon and RCB were in a bit of pressure but Kohli was phenomenal yet again as he batted right throughout the run chase.
Stuart Binny and Kohli finished things of in style with almost two overs to spare. Kohli remained unbeaten on 54 from 45 balls.
The RCB skipper also went past 900 runs in this edition of the IPL and he will surely eye that 1000-run-mark when he comes out with his bat in the qualifier on Tuesday. He also scored his sixth half century of IPL 2016.
Earlier, Virat Kohli had won the toss and had asked Delhi Daredevils to bat first. The wicket looked like a good one and the bowlers got a lot of assistance from the pitch, especially the slower bowlers.
The Daredevils got off to a poor start as they lost the attacking batsman Rishabh Pant early.
Quinton de Kock was the only batsman to go past the 50-run-mark. No other batsman could withstand the pressure exerted by the RCB bowlers. DD kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as they were somehow lacking that intent.
A late flourish from Chris Morris helped the Daredevils to crawl to a paltry total of 138 for the loss of eight wickets.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Chris Gayle picked up five wickets between them. Chahal also collected the purple cap from Ian Bishop during the innings break as currently he is the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Sreenath Aravind and Chris Jordan picked up a wicket each.
RCB will now take on Gujarat Lions in the Qualifier 1 of IPL 2016 playoffs and will have a better chance of making it to the final after seven long years.
