IPL 2023, DC vs RCB | Who said what ft. Philip Salt, David Warner
Delhi Capitals on Saturday cruised past Royal Challengers Bangalore in Match 50 of IPL 2023 courtesy of an ultra-aggressive batting display led by Philip Salt. The David Warner-led side took only 100 balls to see off the target of 182, and Saltās brisk 45-ball 87 made their job look easy.
RCB suffered a massive blow to their hopes of making Playoffs in the ongoing edition after bottom-placed Delhi Capitals handed them a humiliating seven-wicket defeat at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Predominantly due to Mahipal Lomrorās unbeaten 29-ball 54, they posted 181/4 following a steady start from Virat Kohli (55 off 46 balls) and Faf du Plessis (45 off 32 balls), who did not manage to break the shackles. However, the job for DC batters seemed like a piece of cake, as Saltās power-hitting, supported by Warner, Mitch Marsh, and Rilee Rossouw helped them reach the target inside 17 overs.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, RCB skipper du Plessis blamed the dew factor for their bowlersā lackluster performance but credited DC batters at the same time. Besides, he lauded Lomror for putting up a stellar show in Delhi.
I thought we were pretty close to par. We thought 185 is a good score. But there was a little bit of dew in the second innings. But we have to give credit to their batters, they played really well. The pressure their batters put on the spinners led to some mistakes. We didn't maximize our innings. At about 12 overs, we felt like 185 was a par score. Obviously, you like to have one of those big overs to take you to 200, which would have been a good score. But they made our bowlers sit back a little bit after the powerplay. We felt that we had a good enough foundation for Maxi to come in at three. Very pleased to see Lomror come in at No. 5 and play really well. It was very positive for him. Just hope that at No. 3, someone puts their hands up and scores a lot of runs. They pretty much broke the back of the chase in the first six, the way they were going.
Rossouw, who remained not out on 35 off 22 balls, felt 181 was an āaverage scoreā on that track, and praised Salt to make it a mockery of a chase.
Fantastic result. I think we bowled all right. I thought it was an average score. Salt and Warner got off to a good start and Marsh continued that and I thought I could hopefully knock off what's left. What a great bunch of guys. It's been amazing. It was a pretty tricky pitch. It was very slow and it was gripping, it was turning. I think Salt put in a blinder in the first six otherwise it was a tough wicket. We can't lose another game so we are going out with the freedom to play the way we want to. Just keep going as far as possible and who knows, we get lucky and make the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Warner revealed they had a clear cut plan against Mohammed Siraj, who has been bowling superbly in IPL 2023.
It was absolutely amazing. I thought 180 was possible. The ball started skidding on nicely. We said from the outset that we wanted to try and target Siraj. That was our intention. We knew he has been bowling really well and been their backbone so if we could just take him on, it would work in our favour. Credit to the bowlers. They have been brilliant. They defended 130 twice. We have a strong Indian bowling unit with Ishant and Khaleel. And we are looking like a good team now.
After continuing his good run at home, Salt revealed how he managed to play aggressively on a slow and low Delhi track.
We spoke about being positive and taking them on. We saw how good they were in Bangalore when they had their tails up. Something that's a real strength of mine is that if I really get going I don't take my foot off the pedal too often. We knew the wicket is a little slow and low and we knew that realistically we would slow down in the middle. I thought it was par. I thought we would have to bat really well to get there but the boys came out swinging and we got it done. [On Marsh] He came in and hit the second ball for six or something like that and put the bowlers on the back foot.