RCB remained rooted to the bottom of the table while KKR moved to the top. (IPL Image)Royal Challengers Bangalore remain winless after six games and even a typical Delhi Capitals collapse was not enough to put a ‘W’ and 2 points against their names. Just above them sit Rajasthan Royals, who came out of the wrong end of a one-sided match at home against Kolkata Knight Riders. RCB have now equaled the record for the worst start to an IPL season, which is incidentally held by Delhi Capitals in their erstwhile Daredevils avatar.
Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Capitals: Kagiso Rabada worked his magic once again as he put the breaks on RCB’s innings. He took three wickets in the 18th over, including that of Virat Kohli and added to the earlier scalp of his former South African teammate AB de Villiers. RCB were eventually restricted to 149/8.
Delhi Capitals lost Shikhar Dhawan early but Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer ensured that they do not lose any momentum because of that. Shreyas went on to act as the anchor for the innings and led the way with a score of 67 off 50. Navdeep Saini, however, led a late assault on DC. He got the wickets of Shreyas Iyer, and Chris Morris while Mohammed Siraj got Rishabh Pant. However, Axar Patel saved the blushes for Delhi by hitting the winning runs.
Kolkata Knight Riders vs Rajasthan Royals: Rajasthan Royals batted first and were made to labour for each run by Kolkata Knight Riders’ spinners. They lost Ajinkya Rahane early and while Jos Buttler and Steve Smith put up 72 runs for the second wicket, they took 64 balls to get there. Buttler was eventually dismissed for 37 and Smith ended the innings unbeaten on 73 off 59 but the Royals managed only a total of 139/3.
Any hopes that the home fans may have had from the bowlers was dashed away by Chris Lynn and Sunil Narine who came out all guns blazing. The pair hit six fours and three sixes each and put up a partnership of 91 in 8.3 overs.
Narine was the first to go on 47 off 25 balls and Lynn later fell for 50 off 32 but their innings had left little to do for the rest of the KKR batsmen. Robin Uthappa and Shubman Gill went about ticking off the target at their own pace and a wide ball from Ben Stokes ended up providing the winning run.
