After registering a 7-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore, Delhi Capitals (DC) captain David Warner revealed that it was his team's plan to go hard on RCB's star pacer Mohammed Siraj. Delhi Capitals registered their fourth win of the season to stay afloat as they beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2023 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi. Phil Salt's blistering innings of 87 (45) coupled with quick-fire knocks from Mitchell Marsh (26 off 17) and Rilee Rossouw (35* off 22) powered the home side to a seven-wicket win.


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Salt was particularly merciless in destroying RCB pacer Mohammed Siraj, sending three straight deliveries to the boundary, two of which sailed all the way over the ropes. "Amazing. I thought it was a par score, the ball was skidding. But the way we came out led by Phil Salt paved the way. Our intention was to take on Siraj, he's been bowling well and taking wickets early. His wickets have been bowled or LBW so we wanted to drag his length back," Warner said at the time of the post-match presentation.


Warner also praised his team's bowling unit and credited them with the team's earlier successes, in which the capital city franchise managed to win despite low totals. "Credit to the way the bowlers bowled, Anrich is not there but Ishant is leading the pack with Khaleel. And Kuldeep and Axar as well have been brilliant. It is all about momentum, we are finding the right balance at the right time. Now we go to Chennai and try to get a performance there, I know it will be tough," he added.


Coming to the match, chasing 182, David Warner was up and running straightaway as he cracked a couple of fours off Siraj in the first over of the innings. Phil Salt too took the aggressive route as he cracked a four off Glenn Maxwell and then a four and a six off Josh Hazlewood. Warner welcomed Wanindu Hasaranga into the attack with a powerful six over deep square leg. He thumped another four through the same region to make it 12 runs off the over. Salt continued his aggressive batting as he hit consecutive sixes and a four off Mohd. Siraj. It was Hazlewood who finally broke the 60-run stand as he outfoxed Warner (22 off 14) with a slower one, having him caught at mid-off. Mitchell Marsh was quick to get off the blocks as he cracked a six and a four off Hazlewood to take DC to 70/1 at the end of the Powerplay.


Salt continued to keep the scoreboard ticking and brought up his second IPL fifty, off just 28 balls and DC's 100 as he smacked a pullover mid-wicket off Karn Sharma to take 16 off the 9th over. With the partnership blossoming, Kohli brought on Harshal Patel, who had replaced Kedar Jadhav as the Impact Player in the eighth over, into the attack and he broke the 59-run partnership, having Marsh (26 off 17) caught at deep square leg off a slower one.


With 56 needed off 48, Salt and Rilee Rossouw took the attack to Harshal, smashing three sixes and a four to amass 24 runs from the over and bring the required run rate below five. It was a momentum-changing over which put DC firmly in the driver's seat. Salt continued to deal in sixes as he smacked one over deep mid-wicket off Hasaranga to bring the equation down to 23 needed off 36. Salt's fantastic 87-run innings finally came to an end as he dragged one onto the stumps off Karn Sharma with 11 needed off 28. Axar arrived and cracked a six-first ball.


Rossouw finished it off in style with a six-over deep mid-wicket as DC chased down the target with 20 balls and seven wickets to spare.