Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Faf du Plessis admitted that Delhi Capitals (DC) batters put pressure on his spinners which led to some mistakes in the IPL 2023 match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
DC opener and wicket-keeper batter Phil Salt played match-winning innings of 87 runs to help his team beat RCB by seven wickets with 20 balls to spare. Faf du Plessis emphasised that the Delhi Capitals shattered the 182-run chase in the powerplay and that dew played a role in the second innings.
"I thought we were pretty close to par. We thought 185 is a good score. But there was a little bit of dew in the second innings. But we have to give credit to their batters, they played really well. The pressure their batters put on the spinners led to some mistakes," du Plessis said in a post-match presentation.
"We didn't maximise out innings. At about 12 overs, we felt like 185 was a par score. Obviously, you like to have one of those big overs to take you to 200, which would have been a good score. But they made our bowlers sit back a little bit after the powerplay," du Plessis added.
Du Plessis also stated that the 82-run opening stand laid a solid framework for Glenn Maxwell to come in at third. Mitchell Marsh dismissed Maxwell for a golden duck, thus the move backfired. Mahipal Lomror hit an important fifty to help RCB reach a competitive total of 181/4.
"We felt that we had a good enough foundation for Maxi to come in at three. Very pleased to see Lomror come in at No. 5 and play really well. It was very positive for him. Just hope that at No. 3, someone puts their hands up and scores a lot of runs. They pretty much broke the back of the chase in the first six, the way they were going," du Plessis said.
Coming to the match, chasing 182, David Warner was up and running straightaway as he cracked a couple of fours off Siraj in the first over of the innings. Phil Salt too took the aggressive route as he cracked a four off Glenn Maxwell and then a four and a six off Josh Hazlewood.
Warner welcomed Wanindu Hasaranga into the attack with a powerful six over deep square leg. He thumped another four through the same region to make it 12 runs off the over. Salt continued his aggressive batting as he hit consecutive sixes and a four off Mohd. Siraj. It was Hazlewood who finally broke the 60-run stand as he outfoxed Warner (22 off 14) with a slower one, having him caught at mid off. Mitchell Marsh was quick to get off the blocks as he cracked a six and a four off Hazlewood to take DC to 70/1 at the end of the Powerplay.
Salt continued to keep the scoreboard ticking and brought up his second IPL fifty, off just 28 balls and DC's 100 as he smacked a pull over mid-wicket off Karn Sharma to take 16 off the 9th over. With the partnership blossoming, Kohli brought on Harshal Patel, who had replaced Kedar Jadhav as the Impact Player in the eighth over, into the attack and he broke the 59-run partnership, having Marsh(26 off 17) caught at deep square leg off a slower one.
With 56 needed off 48, Salt and Rilee Rossouw took the attack to Harshal, smashing three sixes and a four to amass 24 runs from the over and bring the required run rate below five. It was a momentum changing over which put DC firmly in the driver's seat.
Salt continued to deal in sixes as he smacked one over deep mid-wicket off Hasaranga to bring the equation down to 23 needed off 36. Salt's fantastic 87-run innings finally came to an end as he dragged one onto the stumps off Karn Sharma with 11 needed off 28. Axar arrived and cracked a six first ball. Rossouw finished it off in style with a six over deep mid-wicket as DC chased down the target with 20 balls and seven wickets to spare.
