KL Rahul's fifty and a Stubbs-Miller finish hand Delhi Capitals a six-wicket win over RCB
For long stretches on Saturday evening at the M Chinnaswamy, this looked like RCB’s night. They had 59 in the powerplay, Phil Salt middling the ball, the crowd in full voice and an Axar Patel-led Delhi Capitals attack that kept conceding boundaries. Then the middle overs happened, the tail got picked off, and a gettable 175/8 became a genuinely chaseable 176. Delhi did the rest, reaching 179/4 with a ball to spare to win by six wickets.
How RCB stalled
Salt’s innings was the headline act of the home innings. A scratchy start gave way to a 30-ball fifty, and he finished with 63 off 38 with four fours and three sixes before going in the second half of the innings. The knock also took him past 8,500 T20 runs in all competitions. Virat Kohli had already fallen in the powerplay, and once Salt went, RCB lost shape.
Delhi’s bowling effort was a collective one. Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel each picked up two wickets, which is the sort of shared return that tends to show up when a side is squeezing all three phases of the innings rather than relying on one spell. Tim David’s 26 off 17 at the back end kept the total moving, but at a ground where 190-plus feels like the par conversation, 175 always looked short.
Rahul steadies, Stubbs and Miller finish it
Bhuvneshwar Kumar then turned the powerplay on its head, striking three times to leave Delhi staring at an awkward rebuild. KL Rahul did the steadying, counter-punching to a fifty and carrying the chase to 57 before Krunal Pandya trapped him. That, on paper, should have opened the door for the home side. It did not.
Tristan Stubbs was the constant through the middle, picking gaps more than hitting over the top, and he and Axar Patel added enough in the second half of the innings to keep the required rate from climbing out of reach. By the time David Miller came in to partner Stubbs at the death, the equation had been eased down to something manageable, and the pair saw it home with a ball to spare.
What it does to the table
RCB go into their next fixture with a rare home defeat on the card after a strong start to the campaign. For Delhi, who had been searching for momentum rather than consistency, this is the sort of win that changes a season’s shape. Winning at Chinnaswamy is hard, and winning at Chinnaswamy while chasing is harder still. Axar Patel’s side did both.
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