Death-Over Masters: Hazlewood-Bhuvi Wreck DC

RCB’s pace duo ripped through DC to keep their playoff push on track. DC collapsed despite KL Rahul’s form, slumping further in the table. Hazlewood: Needed 1 wicket for 50 wickets for RCB going into the game. Used short-pitched tactics that unsettled DC batters. Got Nicholas Pooran dragging a pull onto stumps in the LSG game, and dismissed Pant after injury Bhuvneshwar: Closing in on 350 T20 wickets. Dismissed Rishabh Pant for cheap after his injury scare. Took Karun Nair and Sameer Rizvi in early burst vs DC Powerplay squeeze: RCB produced 15 dot balls in Powerplay vs LSG using same plan. Repeated vs DC to trigger collapse. The carnage began with Bhuvneshwar yorking IPL debutant Sahil Parakh for a two-ball duck in the first over and ended with DC being decimated for the lowest powerplay score. The Delhi pitch didn't misbehave, but offered swing and bounce throughout the powerplay. Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood made the most of it to return figures of 3-0-5-3 and 3-0-8-3 respectively in the first six overs. At the innings break, Bhuvneshwar said that he was surprised that the ball swung for so long. Safe to say so were the DC batters. Early wickets: Bhuvneshwar removed Karun Nair caught and Sameer Rizvi caught off a blinder by Jitesh Sharma in 3rd over Rahul start, no support: KL Rahul hit Hazlewood for six first ball but DC lost wickets around him Injury hit: Lungi Ngidi ruled out with head injury. DC’s pace attack weakened24-hour turnaround: DC came in after losing to PBKS despite Rahul 152* + Rana 91. Fatigue showed. With Phil Salt still nursing an injury, Jacob Bethell retained his place in the RCB team and ran away to 20 off 11 balls before Jamieson had him caught superbly by T Natarajan running back from mid-on. Devdutt Padikkal was even quicker off the blocks, reaching 22 off eight balls, and by the end of the powerplay, RCB were 65 for 1. Kohli got the job done for RCB in the next over with back-to-back sixes off Natarajan. Along the way, he became the first player to 9000 IPL runs. Royal Challengers Bengaluru 77 for 1 in 6.3 overs (Padikkal 34*) beat Delhi Capitals 75 (Porel 30, Hazlewood 4-12, Bhuvneshwar 3-5) by nine wickets