Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) edged out Delhi Capitals (DC) by one run at Narendra Modi Stadium (Ahmedabad) to move to the top of the IPL points table on Tuesday.
The match went down to the wire, with DC needing 14 runs from the last over bowled by Mohammed Siraj.
The pacer kept his cool, even as Rishabh Pant (58 n.o., 48b, 6x4) and Shimron Hetmyer (53 n.o., 25b, 2x4, 4x6) fancied their chances. DC required six off the last ball, but Pant could only manage a four to deep point.
Tricky target
Set a tricky target of 172, DC pinned its hopes on skipper Pant and Hetmyer. It was Hetmyer who pulled DC into contention, blasting Kyle Jamieson for three big sixes in the 18th over. Hetmyer made the most of a life gifted by Devdutt Padikkal, who dropped a simple chance when the batsman was on 15.
Harshal Patel - the highest wicket-taker of the tournament - picked up the two vital scalps of Prithvi Shaw and Marcus Stoinis.
After being put in, RCB relied on AB de Villiers (75 n.o., 42b, 3x4, 5x6) to push the side to a good total. De Villiers came to the crease with RCB having lost the key wickets of Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal and Glenn Maxwell.
Kohli (12) jabbed at a ball from pacer Avesh Khan which was too close to cut, while Padikkal (17) was foxed by a gem from Ishant Sharma.
Having predominantly taken the ball away from the in-form Padikkal, Ishant - playing his first match of the tournament - brought one in to disturb the stumps.
Maxwell looked good in his 20-ball 25, until a failed attempt to slog leggie Amit Mishra. De Villiers and Rajat Patidar (31, 22b, 2x6) steadied the ship with a 54-run fourth-wicket stand.
De Villiers was in full flow in the last over bowled by Stoinis, tonking the medium-pacer for three sixes. It was an impossible situation for Stoinis, who was called in to bowl his first and only over of the day, against a well set de Villiers in the death.
The risky move by captain Pant proved costly as Stoinis conceded 23 runs. During the course of his knock, de Villiers became the sixth batsman to cross 5,000 runs in the IPL.
de Villiers became the sixth batsman to cross 5,000 runs in the IPL
