BENGALURU: Not much flamboyance, or over-zealous hitting. A couple of simple, yet good performances, and the job was done. Centurion Quinton de Kock and Karun Nair, though not as flamboyant as the Royal Challengers Bangalore top-order, delivered the goods for Delhi Daredevils as they romped home by seven wickets in their IPL game here.
At one point, there were doubts if DD would even have a chance when they were placed at 50/2 in six overs. That is when Nair joined opener De Kock in the middle. Their 134-run third-wicket stand, which came off 77 balls, led DD to their second straight win.
Nair, initially, looked lost while facing the RCB attack and was docile, while De Kock piled on the runs without any fuss. The South African’s hitting looked simple, yet effective. He picked deliveries early, and dispatched them to the boundary 15 times during his knock, while also notching three hits over the fence.
In contrast, the nearly full M Chinnaswamy Stadium had its fill of Sunday evening entertainment from this match. Having been placed comfortably at the end of the 16th over at 164/2, Bangalore managed only 27 runs in the final four overs. With the wicket being conducive for batting, and with the kind of top order RCB has, it was no surprise to see them come up with such a run fest after being put in to bat. Their scoring tapered off towards the end, and that made the difference.
Both skipper Virat Kohli (79, 48 balls) and AB de Villiers (55, 33 balls) were on the warpath against the Delhi bowling. While the big shots were very much there from the duo, there was also good placement that yielded boundaries. This despite opener Chris Gayle failing yet again with the bat. This time also, he didn’t open his account, edging a delivery from Zaheer Khan to JP Duminy at second slip.
The scoreboard kept ticking, with Kohli and De Villiers tearing apart every bowler. The stand was broken when the latter was caught by Mohammed Shami off Carlos Brathwaite.
The return of the South African to the pavilion did not help Daredevils much. A 107-run second-wicket partnership might have ended, but recently-retired all-rounder Shane Watson (33, 19 balls) kept the scoreboard ticking, and the Australian was in a league of his own. He departed trying to pull one from Shami, but had done his bit, and also provided ample entertainment.
The third-wicket stand between Watson and Kohli yielded 63 runs from just 30 deliveries.
RCB 191/5 in 20 ovs (V Kohli 79, AB de Villiers 55, S Watson 33; M Shami 2/34) lost to DD 192/3 in 19.1 ovs (De Kock 108, Karun 54 n.o, Watson 2/25).