Delhi Daredevils were blown away for 96 in 18.2 overs by an outstanding display of fast bowling, as Royal Challengers Bangalore eased to a second consecutive huge win. Chris Gayle made an unbeaten 62 from 40 balls as the away side won by 10 wickets.
The Daredevils made an inauspicious start as the hitherto impressive Shreyas Iyer was unlucky to be dismissed lbw by Mitchell Starc for a first-over duck, as the Australian’s yorker would have swung down the leg side.
After a steady response – a partnership of 34 from 27 balls – JP Duminy, the in-form Delhi captain, fell softly to Tim Wiese for 13. Worse was to come as Varun Aaron, recalled to the Challengers side to give them an extra seam option on a greenish wicket, took out Yuvraj Singh and Angelo Mathews with consecutive short, sharp deliveries. That left the home side in trouble at 39 for four with their star batsmen back in the dugout.
Mayank Agarwal and Kedar Jadhav put together a partnership of 28 but found boundaries hard to come by and the pressure told, as Agarwal was stumped in ungainly fashion off the bowling of Iqbal Abdulla. David Wiese then had Nathan Coulter-Nile lbw for four, before Starc was brought back in the 15th over and duly bowled both Amit Mishra and Shahbaz Nadeem.
At 90 for eight from 16.3 overs the Daredevils faced the dual ignominy of failing to reach three figures and being bowled out. They were reliant on Jadhav, the final batsman, to avoid being humiliated, but he slapped Harshal Patel straight to Starc at deep mid-wicket with the score still on 92. The rout was completed when AB de Villiers ran out the last man Dominic Joseph, dawdling at the non-striker’s end.
Gayle appeared to be in no mood to take any longer than strictly necessary, hitting 43 off 27 as RCB made 50 for nought in the powerplay, with Virat Kohli happy to give his batting partner as much of the strike as possible.
Gayle brought up his 50 from 29 balls with a huge six over midwicket off Imran Tahir and continued to bat with impunity. Kohli contributed six fours of his own in making 35 from 23 balls while Gayle hit six fours and four sixes as Royal Challengers won emphatically with 57 balls to spare.
Earlier the first match of the day between the Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals was abandoned without a ball being bowled. Each side took one point, meaning the Royals moved back to the top of the standings.
