It was the day of the Davids. In the the first match of this super Sunday, it was Punjab beating Pune and then in the evening Delhi slayed the RCB at their den. It was a cracker of a match to begin with. The Delhi and Bangalore fans got their prayers answered in turns.
A flat batting wicket, a high scoring ground and the power hitters of Bangalore; everything favored the RCB until they got bluffed by the baby faced Quinton DeKock.
Bangalore has always been a chasing ground and tonight was no different. DD won the toss and put Bangalore in to bat. With players like Gayle, Kohli, De Villiers and Watson in the top 4 there is always a risk of being batted out of the match, but this was Delhi’s best chance of making a contest out of it and how.
To start with, Delhi picked up Gayle for a duck off the 3rd ball of the innings by a beauty from Zaheer Khan. But the joy was shortlived, in fact just 1 ball, as the new batsman AB De Villiers smashed his 2nd and 3rd ball for boundaries. And it started. The floodgates opened as the two best batsman of this time Kohli and De Villiers went about their business in style and raised a century partnership inside of 10 overs. Then it was Delhi phase again as they picked up De Villiers for 55 and sent in a couple of good overs by Brathwaite and Shami to quiet things down. But once the new man Watson had his eye in it was Bangalore all over again as Kohli and Watson plundered fours and sixes at will and in abundance. RCB were 164 for 2 in 16 overs and looked set for a score of 220 or more. And it shifted again. Delhi bounced back by giving away just 27 runs and picking 3 wickets in the last 4 overs bowled by Chris Morris And Mohd. Shami. RCB were restricted to 191, a score which was still daunting.
Delhi had the momentum and the belief by restricting RCB well short of a score which once looked possible.
At this ground, the target of 192 was not out of bound but it was up to the young Delhi batsmen to apply themselves. Quinton De Kock started well in the first over but Shreyas Iyer failed again and walked backed for a duck off the 5th ball of their innings. De Kock continued to make merry at the other end despite of all the bowling changes. The new batman Sanju Samson was finding his going tough as Quinton kept moving the scoreboard at the desired rate. Delhi’s fifty was raised at the end of the 5th over but the next over from Watson pushed DD back again with a wicket and 1 run off the 6th over. A couple of quiet overs dipped the DD run rate a bit as Karun Nair, the new batsman tried to get his eye in. Delhi were up and running again as Nair and De Kock started their bid to up the ante.
Delhi brought up their 100 in 11 overs and did not look back. De Kock and Nair’s timely boundaries kept Delhi ahead of the asking rate all the time.
And then there it was, the moment the DD fans were waiting for Quinton De Kock’s 100 off just 48 balls. He had outplayed the RCB team single handedly. When he walked back towards the pavilion he had scored 108 runs off a meager 51 balls and Delhi requiring just 8 off 10 balls with 7 wickets in hand. New man Duminy finished the game with ease and gave DD their 2nd win in 3 games to make it to the top half of the points table.
The manner of this win will instill a lot of self belief in this team and help them raise their game. RCB once again proving to be batting heavy side with no real teeth in bowling. It is high time for them to address the issue as in such a long tournament it is possible that their batsman run out of form sometime.