A not so hight total, yet Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) managed to take the game almost till the end but lost to Delhi Capitals (DC) by 6 wickets at Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi making it to the Playoffs.
The Delhi franchise seal the second spot with the victory and will meet Mumbai Indians (MI) in the Qualifier As for RCB, they are safe too, thanks to their net run-rate (NRR).
RCB needed to make sure DC don't finish the game before 17.3 overs and they managed that making them the third team to qualify. The clash between MI and Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) will see who will be the last team to make it to the playoffs.
As for the clash, Delhi Capitals won the toss and chose to field first. Young Devdutt Padikkal shone again with a half-century before the Capitals roared back to restrict the Royals to a mere 152 for seven. Padikkal smashed five fours in his 41-ball 50 and shared a 57-run stand with skipper Virat Kohli (29 off 24) for the third wicket.
The Capital, however, pulled things back brilliantly in the middle overs. Pacer Anrich Nortje (3/33) was the pick of the bowlers, while Kagiso Rabada (2/30) picked up two wickets and Ravichandran Ashwin (1/18), who took the important wicket of Kohli.
Kohli, who was dropped on 13 in the 10th over by Nortje, tried to up his game but when the RCB skipper looked to smash the ball over the fence, he was caught at deep midwicket by Marcus Stoinis.
Nortje struck twice in the 16th over to get ride of Padikkal and South African all-rounder Chris Morris for a duck. AB de Villiers (35) raised a 33-run stand with young Shivam Dube (17 off 11 balls), but the duo couldn't power RCB to a bigger total.
As for DC, Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw gave a powerful start to the side, however, Shaw did not stay on the field for long and departed for just 9.
Dhawan (54) was then joined by Ajinkya Rahane (60) and the duo formed a good partnership causing havoc to RCB bowlers. Shreyas Iyer (7) Rishabh Pant (8*) and Marcus Stoinis (10*) made sure to get Delhi towards victory.
RCB's Shahbaz Ahmed (2 for 26) was the pick of the bowlers, while Washington Sundar (1 for 24) and Mohammed Siraj (1 for 29) got the four wickets.
