DC vs RCB

Tomorrow the attention will move to Jaipur where Rajasthan Royals, who find themselves in a do or die situation, will lock horns with their arch-nemesis of recent times — Gujarat Titans. Do join us for that game. Our coverage begins at 6:30 PM IST. For now, it is the pair of Darpan Tikiya and Arya Sekhar Chakraborty signing off.

RCB continue to be a force away from home. With this emphatic win in Delhi, they have now made it 6-0 in away games this year. Currently, they are the table toppers and also hold the Orange Cap as well as the Purple Cap. On the other hand, Delhi Capitals have now lost three out of their last five games. They still find themselves in the top four, but have Punjab Kings and Lucknow Super Giants biting at their heels. 

Krunal Pandya is the Player of the Match. He says, "It is always good to get the result. You put in the hard work behind the scenes. It is great when it comes off. My role was clear. I was told to go out there and stitch a partnership. We had power-hitters like David, Shepherd and Jitesh still to come. Happy that I was able to fulfil my role. Virat being at the other end does help. For the first 20 balls, I was a bit scrtachy. But Virat kept telling me it will come off. This year, I have a worked on my bowling a lot. It is working in my favour. (About his bouncer) Every year in the IPL, batsmanship is becoming better. The players are becoming fearless. So, as a bowler I have to keep the batsman guessing."

Rajat Patidar (Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain): "It was a total team performance. The way the bowlers executed their plans of this wicket was excellent. To us it is not about the venues. We decided to chase so we could plan according to the target. The bowlers did a great job to restrict them to 160. It feels great to lead RCB. There are many great players in the side. For me it is a great experience to learn from them."

11:27 PM IST | Hang around for the post match presentation. As we wait for it, feel free to scroll below and read through the summary of the match.

Virat Kohli is the new Orange cap holder, here is what he had to say: "Well it was a top win especially looking at the surface. This wicket played a lot differently to the other wicket. I keep checking with the dug out that what is my role during a run chase. Krunal was outstanding with the bat, we were waiting for him to come into the tournament with the bat as well and he played a top knock. The total on the board, who are the bowlers whom you can target and who are the bowlers are difficult. My focus is always on rotating strikes, it's about stitching a partnership and this year you are seeing you just can't tee off from ball one. You have to rotate strike on a slow wicket, understand what the situation demands of me and keep rotating strike and not remain stagnant. The feedback I was getting from krunal was you stay and I will take the chances. Great win and hopefully we can continue the winning run. We had extra power in Romario. He and Tim can smash five sixes in ten deliveries if required. The firepower helps you stay in the game for longer periods of time. Hazlewood and Bhuvi and world class bowlers. Josh has been the difference for us and there is a reason why he has the purple cap. Suyash and Krunal has been creating pressure. Suyash might not have too many wickets to his name but he is controlling the middle overs which are helping us immensely."

Axar Patel (Delhi Capitals captain): "I think we were 10-15 runs short, it was tough in the first innings and dew made it easy in the second easy. We have to take those tough chances in the field. The wicket was two paced, when dew it started coming easily. We kept losing wickets and if one batter had stayed there for a while, we could have won that. KL was batting well so there was no particular reason why I came down the order. KL was batting really well so we went him early."

11:14 PM IST | Royal Challengers Bengaluru win by 6 wickets.

Krunal Pandya 73* (47) | Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/33 (4)
KL Rahul 41 (39) | Axar Patel 2/19 (4)

After Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Mullanpur and Jaipur, RCB have now conquered Delhi. They register their sixth consecutive away victory and with this go to the top of the points table. And while there were contributions all around, a different hero rose to the occasion and stole the spotlight tonight. Krunal Pandya's fighting knock of 73* (47) will steal the headlines.

Not many agreed with Rajat Patidar's decision of electing to bowl first. After all, the last seven games in the IPL at this venue had been won by teams batting first. The wicket was expected to be on the sluggish side. Despite that not many would have expected the Delhi Capitals innings to move along at the pace it did. For the large part, it meandered like an old rusty bicycle on a muddy road. Faf du Plessis, who came back into the team today after having missed the last four games due to injury, looked rusty. He found it hard to time the ball and ended with a strike rate of just 84.6 despite batting through till the 10th over. KL Rahul too was not at his fluent best. He was initially circumspect with his approach and took a while to gauge the pace of the wicket. His attempts to play the big shots were limited and the execution not quite the up to the mark all the time. The only two batters who managed to impress were Abishek Porel and Tristan Stubbs. The left-hander scored an exuberant 11-ball-28 at the top of the order, while the finisher notched up an equally effervescent 18-ball-34.

RCB only used five bowlers today and all of them will get their backs patted by the management. Spinners Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya were tidy and kept the scoring through the middle overs under check. Dayal ended up being expensive but bowled better than what his figures suggest. Though, tonight he became the first RCB bowler to concede a no-ball in IPL 2025. The pick of the bowlers was once again Josh Hazlewood who now gets to wear the purple cap on his head. Meanwhile, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who was smashed around for 17 runs in his second over, came back to bowl two excellent overs at the death and finished with 3/33 against his name..

RCB's start with the bat was not ideal. Debutant Jacob Bethell, who hit a couple of commanding fours, was dismissed in the third over of the run chase. Two balls later, Devdutt Padikkal chopped one onto this stumps. Then, Rajat Patidar got run out. Karun Nair's fielding brilliance was responsible for two of those three dismissals. At that stage, the home side was well and truly on top. The Delhi skipper had led the way with his superb spell of 3-0-10-2. To counter him, RCB decided to hand Krunal Panyda a promotion in the order.

For the large part it seemed like a move that wasn't going to pay off. Krunal was struggling to gauge the pace of the wicket. Not only boundaries were hard to come by, but even strike rotation was tacky. Against the short ball, Krunal appeared to be a cat on a hot tin roof until one pinged him on the lid. Perhaps, that woke him up. He was on 14* (19) when he had a change of helmet and suddenly he was a different player. He began taking risks and they started coming off. The southpaw hit five robust fours and four powerful sixes as he notched up a match defining half-century. Meanwhile, on the other end, Virat Kohli did what Virat Kohli does so often. He embodied sturdiness, milked the bowling around for rapid ones and twos and ensured that Krunal could take his chances at the other end. The duo had an 84-ball-119 run partnership that knocked Delhi out of this game. Tim David then finished it off. Delhi were guilty of spilling a couple of chances at important times. Porel and Stubbs both squandered catching opportunities and that did not help.

18.3 Mukesh Kumar to Tim David, FOUR! David finishes it off in style, on a fuller-length around middle angling back into David, flicked away towards the square leg region, a bit from the inside half of the bat and it races away to the fence. RCB win by 6 wickets and gets to the top of the points table. 

18.2 Mukesh Kumar to Tim David, FOUR! Sliced away for a boundary. Full-length delivery a shade outside off, David opens the bat face and carves it away towards the deep cover point fence, just two more needed. 

18.2 Mukesh Kumar to Tim David, FOUR! Was that over the waist? A juicy full toss from Mukesh and David goes for the pull, more of a toppish edge over the square leg fielder and rolls away to the fence, David has taken the review for no ball not given, that's just a metre over the waist and will be a no ball. 

18.1 Mukesh Kumar to Tim David, SIX! That's a low full toss from Mukesh a shade outside off, David holds his shape and swings through the line, sends it well over long-off, he wants to finish it off quickly here.