IPL 2023 Live Report - Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Capitals, Bengaluru

Royal Challengers spent a large part of this game under the pump. Frustratingly, every time they thought they got ahead, like when Virat Kohli reached a 33-ball fifty, or when Glenn Maxwell was pummelling the spinners on a spin-friendly pitch, a wicket would fall to douse the momentum. Winning a game like this – a game where their crowd spent the first innings largely silent – will do wonders for their campaign because they clawed their way back. And because their star turns came with the ball.

Mohammed Siraj (4-0-23-2) was phenomenal in conditions that should have cancelled him. Their debutant Vijaykumar Vyshak was the most successful bowler on the night, with three wickets including that of an IPL legend David Warner. Their fielding was electric, a direct hit run-out from Anuj Rawat setting the tone for the fightback. The only Capitals batters who managed to resist was Manish Pandey (50 off 38) and Axar Patel (21 off 14).

Towards the end of the game, it became clear that the pitch had got better for batting under lights. This is the reason why Capitals, having won the toss, chose to bowl in the first place. But their calamitous start to a chase of 174 - 2 for 3 in three overs and then 30 for 4 with Warner dismissed - just didn’t allow them to take advantage.

The score is 98 for 6. The equation is 77 off 37. So you can understand why Pandey barely celebrates and the applause coming his way is muted.

Next ball though, he's out to a Hasaranga googly. Dinesh Karthik was the man who insisted on the review. He was the only one really. And it comes off.

The lights are taking effect at the Chinnaswamy.

It's cooled down nicely.

And all of a sudden, the ball is coming onto the bat.

Capitals had won a great toss. This is why. The conditions are changing midway through the game.

Axar and Pandey are experienced players. They'll know if they take this deep anything can happen. Welp, fun while it lasted. Axar's gone for 21 off 14. Slower ball - knuckle ball from Vyshak - does the trick again.

T20 isn't a nice place to be for a medium pacer. But Harsha owned this stage thanks to two things. His skill and his belief.

Lately one of those might have taken a hit. He broke into the Indian team on the back of a purple-cap winning IPL performance. But it didn't really work out. He got injured. He got dropped. He got replaced when Umran Malik had his own big IPL season.

All that can sow a little doubt in the mind. Even in one as mentally strong as Harshal. Then came this IPL season and he kept getting whacked. Pooran and Stoinis did a number on him in the last game.

Belief plays a huge role in a bowler's life in T20s. Belief is why Bhuvneshwar Kumar is still a death overs king. He took on Rinku Singh and Nitish Rana in the last game when they were on a rampage bowling just 130kph. He came out the winner because he had clear plans, to tuck them up, to upend their power game.

Harshal at his best used to do exactly this. To deny batters the use of their power. This season he hasn't had the same kind of luck, but here, this pitch is tailor-made for him. And he comes on and picks up a wicket immediately.

Gets it with a full toss too - but the thing with Harshal's full tosses is, they dip on you. You think you can get it off the middle, but in the end, they dip and go off the toe end. Abhishek Porel is gone. Capitals are 53 for 5 and both Faf du Plessis and Virat Kohli go up to Harshal and give him a big hug. That tells you how important he is to this team and how much they value him being back in form.

Winning this game will do wonders to RCB. They spent loads it on the back foot. Frustratingly, they were pushed there after getting into seemingly invincible positions - Kohli getting to fifty and looking set and getting out. Maxwell pummelling the spinners, then suddenly getting out.

Winning a game where they looked unfancied is the greatest pick-me-up in sport.

Slower ball.

Banged into the pitch.

That length makes a batter pull on instinct.

They know they need to delay their shots on this slow pitch.

But that length just overrides everything.

Warner is into the shot too early.

Toe end of the bat.

Caught at midwicket.

Vyshak on IPL debut. In his first over. Has dismissed an IPL all-time great. DC are 30 for 4 now

When Maxwell was on the mic earlier this innings, he spoke about how the batters told the bowlers that hitting the pitch hard and back of a length was messing with batters' timing.

RCB's bowlers, even their rookie, has listened to those instructions and they've turned this game right around.

Then they hit three in three balls.

Well, Warner hits em. And when Warner gets boundaries going, watch out. The last of that bunch was all class. Siraj bowled a good length ball that would have trimmed the off bail. But Warner positioned himself leg side of it and just calmly tapped it on top of the bounce through the gap at extra cover. Just pure timing. He hits boundaries in orthodox areas, and somehow remains a theat even in the 360 era. It's incredible.

The Chinnaswamy is rocking. The chants are out in FULL force. ARR-CEE-BEE! ARR-CEE-BEE! ARR-CEE-BEE!

And their fast bowlers are finally rocking up. Siraj pins Yash Dhull in front for 1 off 4.

Pace on the ball was getting whacked in the first innings. But Siraj bowls at pace, and gets the ball to move. This one cut back into the right-hander fairly sharply. The skid off the pitch - even this slow pitch - caught Dhull cold. Its his wobble seam ball. Its his favourite toy. And its wreaking havoc.

Kohli takes a skier. The wife is grinning from ear to ear. Capitals are 1 for 2 in a chase of 175.

Slow pitch. You can't play pick up shots on a slow pitch. Marsh saw the ball back of a length on his body from Parnell. He just went for the nonchalant hit up and over midwicket. High risk shot in these conditions and ended up with a leading edge.

Marsh likes pace on the ball. These conditions are his anti-thesis. RCB have worked this wicket beautifully.

A direct hit to send Shaw back for a duck. DC 1 for 1 in the first over

But that's just the headline. The details are what makes this wicket TikTok-y.

Shaw was on the back foot, punching through cover like he likes to do, and usually he times the pants off those shots. Here too, the sound off the bat was brilliant.

But Rawat at short extra cover, cut the angle quickly, moving to his right, dived to pick the ball up with his right hand, and leapt up. He is totally off balance. But he knows a run-out chance is on. He has only one stump to aim at. He lets fly and he catches Shaw so far short the decision is made on field.

Shaw's scores this IPL: 12, 7, 0, 15, 0. Replays show he didn't even run that hard. There was a moment of hesitation as well. No dive either. Earlier, off the second ball of the chase, when Warner was looking for two, and there was two on, Shaw told him no. Poor all around.

With Anrich Nortje, it's a different story. He's high pace. Often around 150 kph. And he has better control of his yorker than his slower ball. He keeps going for the blockhole and he gives up only eight runs in the final over

He kept going for yorkers on a pitch which is offering bite to his cutters.

All of those yorkers have ended up as full toss. All of those boundaries are off full tosses. Not great bowling. Not great planning. Twelve off the 19th over. RCB 166 for 6 and looking much more competitive.

Mustafizur (3-0-41-0) has leaked seven of the 21 boundaries given away in this innings. No other DC bowler has been hit for more than three boundaries in their spell

Normally RCB would have waited until the end of the innings and then brought in their spinner Karn Sharma as impact player. This is a slow dry spinning pitch too.

But that collapse has pressed them into emergency mode and Anuj Rawat, a specialist batter, has come in, ahead of Wanindu Hasaranga, who can clout it.

It's a response to their collapse with the bat - 117 for 2 has turned into 134 for 6. Besides, bowlers only come into play when they have decent runs on the board. Mahipal Lomror is the man substituted out. So that's some overs of left-arm spin lost as well.

OOPS, MAXWELL'S GONE.

Warner has pulled off a little coup here. Maxwell, as those stats say, has been brutal on spin. But this isn't just any spin. It's wristspin. And on the evidence of this wicket, Maxi didn't pick the way this ball was turning. He just saw it looping up and wound up to launch it over the leg side, which would have been fine, the left-armer's stock ball turns into him.

But this was the googly. It took the leading edge. And Warner himself takes the catch and celebrates wildly. BIG STRIKE. RCB 132 FOR 5... AND NOW 132 FOR 6 AS DK GETS A GOLDEN DUCK AND DC GET A TEAM HAT-TRICK

Kuldeep ends a double-wicket maiden.

Harshal Patel, sent up the order to pinch hit some quick runs, falls four balls into his innings and immediately after hitting Axar for a six. That's job done.

RCB have a left-hander Shahbaz Ahmed to come in and maybe match up with Axar and Kuldeep. Plus there's DK.

And of course, the big gun, who is well placed to do some damage on a pitch where DC are going all in on spin...

Maxwell vs pace: 4 off 5, no boundaries
Maxwell vs spin: 20 off 8, three sixes

Marsh strikes again and he has EARNED this wicket.

Nobody thought it was out except for him. A wide length ball that Lomror, who has been having a hard time connecting because he's only slogging the ball, has him caught behind.

The keeper Abhishek Porel did not hear anything. In fact, when Warner was asking for help on the DRS call, Porel seemed adamant that they shouldn't go for the review.

But Marsh did. And Marsh is a senior player. So Warner goes with that. DRS shows the slightest spike and Capitals have another wicket. RCB 119 for 3 in 13 overs

During the celebrations Marsh holds onto his ears and says, if I've lip-read right, "Big ears, lads"

And he proves all this by hitting two of his first three balls for sixes against the offspin of Lalit Yadav

Maxwell does, however, have an iffy record against left-arm orthodox spin in IPLs since 2021. Average of only 17.2 with six dismissals in 18 innings.

Capitals might have gone to Axar, but instead they've gone to the extra pace of Nortje to take out RCB's remaining big gun.

TO A FULL TOSS!

This is lolz cricket.

Kohli has been playing the toughest balls so coolly. The ones that were cramping him for room from the spinners.

More than that, he had just played not one but two shots of the match, a stand-still and bottom-hand drill down the ground turning an almost yorker into a boundary. And then another stand-perfectly-still and bottom-hand whip a back of a length ball on his hip for six. The wristwork on that shot to get it so far was just bonkers.

It felt like a Kohli day after that shot. But on comes Lalit Yadav. Bowls a massive full toss and he has the RCB talisman caught on the midwicket boundary. RCB 82 for 2 in the 11th over

This was Mustafizur coming back in the 10th over after four overs of spin that cost just 27 runs.

Then boom. Kohli has fifty and even Lomror, who was 8 off 9, started to whack it

He's assessed the conditions. He knows 1) he needs to bat 20 overs and 2) this isn't a 200 pitch. His team is batting when the conditions are at their toughest, but they'll get slightly better towards the end of this innings, and if he's there, Kohli is a monster at the death. He strikes as well as Russell and Dhoni in the last four overs. If RCB can pace this innings so that Kohli, Maxwell and DK face most of those balls at the end overs, we can still see a huge score.

Lalit Yadav in the 6th over

Axar Patel in the 4th over

Axar Patel in the 2nd over

A slow pitch and the spinners targeting the stumps have together meant its been hard for RCB to hit them off the 30-yard circle.

When there's no pace coming onto the bat, and you also don't have room to free the arms, it's really hard to get power into your shots.

That's why du Plessis felt compelled to go extra hard on the quicks and lost his wicket.

The newly married man strikes in his first over, and he could have had two in two!

Faf du Plessis is caught at midwicket by Aman Khan in grand style, just sticking his right hand out over his head and having it stick.

Next ball, Mahipal Lomror cuts to point where Manish Pandey, usually such a good fielder, drops a catch diving to his right

RCB going hard. DC taking pace off.

RCB trying to mess with DC's Axar Patel plans by sending in a left-handed Mahipal Lomror. DC responding by bringing in offspinner Lalit Yadav

Kohli the right-hander could render these plans silly, but he isn't attacking spin, his strike rate against them is only 114 this season.

So again, Capitals have won a great toss.

Capitals understand that they've won a really good toss.

They went Nortje just to see if his 150kph thunderbolts could unsettle these two RCB juggernauts. It didn't.

So immediately they went to their change up bowlers.

Mustafizur Rahman followed Axar's five-run second over with an over full of cutters. He did go full pace on a couple of occasions, and those were the balls that were belted to the boundary.

This doesn't look like a free-scoring Chinnaswamy pitch right now, especially under the sunshine. Later on, in the evening, under lights, it might just pick up.

Faf and Kohli are trying to counter that by charging down the pitch as often as possible. Four of their first six boundaries were the result of coming down the pitch. They're basically making the pace themselves to keep scoring quickly. Good tactical battle.

On a dry looking pitch, with Virat Kohli scoring significantly slower against spin in this IPL (114 vs 170), Capitals are going to take the pace off straight away.

Here is Axar Patel for the second over, to try and rein in RCB.

The first over went for 11 with Kohli hitting Nortje's pace for two fours. But Axar, even bowling with only two fielders outside the 30 yard circle, gives up a mere five runs. Good stuff from both him and his team.

Maybe it's just early in the innings so he can get away with it, but Axar was unafraid to toss the ball up there. Even on a tiiiiiiny ground.

Warner of Capitals says it only needs one win to get momentum, starting well with bat and ball. For us we need to get early wickets, and when we bat we can't lose wickets in clumps. Marsh is in for Powell

Capitals: 1 David Warner (capt), 2 Mitchell Marsh, 3 Yash Dhull, 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Axar Patel, 6 Lalit Yadav, 7 Aman Khan, 8 Abishek Porel (wk), 9 Kuldeep Yadav, 10 Anrich Nortje, 11 Mustafizur Rahman

Subs: Prithvi Shaw, Mukesh Kumar, Pravin Dubey, Sarfaraz Khan, Chetan Sakariya

du Plessis of RCB wanted to bowl as well, because defending at the Chinnaswamy is really hard. He adds that the onus is on him and Virat at the top to figure out the conditions quickly and pace the innings batting first well. Hasaranga is back, instead of Willey

RCB: 1 Faf du Plessis (capt), 2 Virat Kohli, 3 Mahipal Lomror, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Shahbaz Ahmed, 6 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 7 Wanindu Hasaranga, 8 Harshal Patel, 9 Wayne Parnell, 10 Mohammed Siraj, 11 Vijaykumar Vyshak

Subs: Suyash Prabhudessai, David Willey, Akash Deep, Karn Sharma, Anuj Rawat

The new name in there - Vyshak - is a Karnataka fast bowler who has 22 wickets in 14 T20s. Looks like RCB have decided to bulk up their death bowling resources given that's where they are losing games.

There are some things that are bigger than cricket, like say the health and well being of an incredible young man. Rishabh Pant suffered an accident in December where his car burst into flames but he came away with his life intact. His rehabilitation appears to be going well, and he's even been around the team a few times.

Nicholas Pooran, who has come back from similar career-threatening injuries, has been in touch with Pant and explained just how low this phase of life can be for... anyone, let alone a cricketer.

It isn't related to this game in any way but for those on Bumrah for the ODI World Cup watch, here is the latest from the BCCI