At the toss, Delhi Capitals’ Shreyas Iyer stressed the importance of someone chipping in with the bat when required. Against Royal Challengers Bangalore in Dubai on Monday, the need arose. Bangalore bowlers were impressive in the middle overs, scalping three wickets, including that of Iyer, for 39 runs in seven overs.
Marcus Stoinis paid good heed to Iyer’s words. The Australian was at his impressive best, taking the attack to the opposition, unleashing a 26-ball 53 to steer his team to a healthy 196 for four. The right-hander walked into bat in the 12th over and dealt in boundaries with utmost ease in the next few overs.
If he hit Moeen Ali for a six and four in the 14th, he slammed Navdeep Saini for two fours and a six in the next. It looked like an innings with intent written all over, against a team which released him ahead of last year’s auction. The experienced man, en route his half-century, hit six fours and two sixes. Rishabh Pant played a good hand too, scoring a 25-ball 37.
However, one needs to give credit to opener Prithvi Shaw, who provided a flying start to his team with a 23-ball 42. He looked in ominous touch, hitting the Bangalore bowlers all around the park in the first six overs. Right from the first over of the contest, when the 20-year-old hit three boundaries, he meant business.
Chasing 197 for win, Bangalore’s batting failed to click as they lost by 59 runs with pacer Kagiso Rabada taking 4/24. He was complimented by Anrich Nortje and Axar Patel.
Brief scores: DC 196/4 in 20 ovs (Stoinis 53 n.o, Shaw 42) beat RCB 137/9 in 20 ovs (Kohli 43, Rabada 4/24).