Krunal, Kohli help RCB upstage Capitals, top IPL table

New Delhi: Royal Challengers Bengaluru have found a quiet, unsung hero driving their success in away matches. And once again, in their sixth away win of the season, he stepped up. Krunal Pandya, who had made his mark with the ball in the other wins, turned up with the bat this time against Delhi Capitals, scoring a brilliant unbeaten 73 off 47 balls to guide RCB to the top of the points table with a six-wicket win on Sunday.

Supporting Pandya at the other end was Virat Kohli, who ensured the victory on his home turf. It helped that the Kotla pitch resembled the old days, sticky and forcing the batters to mistime and chop on deliveries.

RCB’s player identification manager and spin coach Malolan Rangarajan had clarified Kohli’s much-talked about anchor role within the set-up on match eve saying, “Every time there’s an opportunity for him to step on the pedal, he does it.”

But on Sunday evening, his team needed him to play exactly the very scrutinised anchor role. He did not need to step on the pedal. It was a pitch that demanded application after restricting DC to 162/8, whose best score was KL Rahul’s 41.

Although Kohli too struggled to get the timing right on the pitch, he anchored the chase with a slow-paced, 47-ball 51, allowing Krunal to take charge. Kohli has 443 runs in 10 innings now and is the leading run-scorer in IPL 2025.

Pandya now has two IPL fifties – they have both come against Delhi.

Chasing 163 for the win, Jacob Bethell – coming in for an unwell Phil Salt – partnered with Kohli at the top. He hit Mitchell Starc for a six and four but DC skipper Axar Patel, who had taken just one wicket before this match, took two in a nearly game-changing over.

Karun Nair effected the run out of captain Rajat Patidar and with that it looked like they had broken the back of the chase early, reducing the innings to 26/3. But Kohli and Pandya’s 119-run partnership pulled the team out of a rut.

After Dushmanta Chameera (1/24) dismissed Kohli in the 18th over, Tim David took over the finishing duties, scoring a 5-ball 19* to guide the team home.

There were contrasting assessments of the pitch ahead of the match. Given that the surface had produced thrillers in the last two games, there was a sense that DC needed to raise their game to assert themselves at home.

Although Axar’s reading that the pitch was slow proved accurate, DC struggled to outclass their opponents. KL Rahul’s 41 off 39 balls was an innings in which he never looked at ease.

Abishek Porel gave DC a brisk start, smashing 28 off 11 balls, but Hazlewood ended his stay early. RCB’s spin duo Krunal (1/28) and Suyash Sharma (0/22) tightened the screws in the middle overs, keeping the run-rate in check.

With the top and middle order faltering, DC needed a strong finish. However, neither Karun (4) nor impact substitute Ashutosh Sharma (0) could make a difference.

All eyes were again on Hazlewood after his brilliant death-overs spell against Rajasthan Royals, and on a slow surface, he looked set to repeat his heroics. However, Vipraj Nigam (12) and Tristan Stubbs (34) took him on in his final over, smashing him for 17 runs. Hazlewood eventually finished with figures of 2/36.

As Stubbs and Nigam took down Hazlewood and Yash Dayal (1/42) for 36 runs across two overs, DC had looked set for a bigger total. Bhuvneshwar Kumar though emerged the standout bowler, returning 3/33. His last over proved crucial, going for just six runs. He picked up one wicket besides a run out, preventing DC from even breaching the 170-mark.