Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB 166/3: Bharat 78*, Nortje 2/24) won by 7 wickets in Dubai over Delhi Capitals (DC 164/5: Shaw 48, Siraj 25/2). The two openers, Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal, were removed cheaply by Anrich Nortje in RCB’s 165-run chase against Delhi Capitals. When Axar Patel removed AB de Villiers shortly after, things looked bleak. However, RCB won thanks to an unbroken 111-run stand between KS Bharat and Glenn Maxwell. After Royal Challengers Bangalore won the toss and decided to bowl in Dubai, DC scored 164/5 (Shaw 48, Siraj 25/2) in 20 overs.
Royal Challengers Group: Virat Kohli (c), Devdutt Padikkal (w), Srikar Bharat (wk), Daniel Christian, Glenn Maxwell, AB de Villiers, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, George Garton, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzvendra Chahal, Dushmantha Chameera, Sachin Baby, Kyle Jamieson, Tim David, Wanindu Hasaranga, Navdeep Saini, Rajat Patidar, Mohammed Azharuddin
Delhi Capital’s Group: Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyer, Rishabh Pant (w/c), Ripal Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shimron Hetmyer, Axar Patel, Kagiso Rabada, Avesh Khan, Anrich Nortje, Ishant Sharma, Steven Smith, Umesh Yadav, Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Sam Bill
As they square off in the last league match of the season, the Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore are nearly certain to finish first and third in the IPL 2021 points standings, respectively.
DC will finish first in the table regardless of the outcome, and they may rest several of their first-team players. RCB had hoped to overtake CSK as the second-best team before the playoffs, but their loss to SRH threw a wrench in the plans. They still have a chance to overtake CSK on net run-rate if they win by a large margin, but they’ll be more focused on putting together their playoff lineup. They’ve been worried about their third-place finish.
