IPL 2021: Virat Kohli's RCB beat Rishabh Pant's Delhi Capitals in final-ball thriller

Srikar Bharat and Glenn Maxwell played unbeaten knocks of 78 and 51 respectively as RCB defeated Delhi Capitals by seven wickets in their IPL 2021 encounter at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday.

Royal Challengers Bangalore batter KS Bharat celebrates the win (IPL)

Dubai: Srikar Bharat and Glenn Maxwell played unbeaten knocks of 78 and 51 respectively as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated Delhi Capitals by seven wickets in their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 encounter at the Dubai International Stadium on Friday.

Delhi Capitals finished at the top spot in the points table and now the side will square off against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) in Qualifier 1 on Sunday. On the other hand, RCB finished at the third spot and Virat Kohli`s team will face Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in the Eliminator on Monday. 

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Chasing 165, RCB got off to the worst start possible as Devdutt Padikkal (0) was sent back to the pavilion in the very first over by Anrich Nortje. The Proteas pacer did not stop there as in his next over, he got the big fish Virat Kohli (4) and RCB was reduced to 6/2.

AB de Villiers and Srikar Bharat then got together at the crease and the duo retrieved the innings for RCB. Both batters put on 49 runs for the third wicket, but as soon as the innings started coming on track, Kohli`s side lost the wicket of de Villiers (26), still needing 110 runs to win from 63 balls.

In the 14th over, Glenn Maxwell was dropped two times -- once by Shreyas Iyer and once by Ravichandran Ashwin and as a result, RCB remained in the hunt to chase down 165.

In the end, Bharat and Maxwell maintained their composure to guide RCB to a win. On the last ball, RCB needed five for a win, and Bharat ended up hitting the ball for a six.

Earlier, Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan played knocks of 48 and 43 as Delhi Capitals posted a total of 164/5 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).

Apart from Dhawan and Shaw, Shimron Hetmyer also got among the runs as he played a knock of 29. For RCB, Mohammed Siraj returned with two wickets. Sent into bat, Delhi Capitals got off to a brilliant start as openers Dhawan and Shaw put on 55 runs inside the first six overs. Both batters continued till the 10-over mark and as a result, Delhi was sitting nicely at 88/0.

However, the very first ball of the 11th over brought about Dhawan`s (43) dismissal as he was sent back to the pavilion by Purple Cap holder Harshal Patel.

Soon after, Prithvi Shaw (48) and Rishabh Pant (10) were dismissed by Yuzvendra Chahal and Daniel Christian leaving Delhi Capitals at 108/3 in the 13th over. In the end, Shimron Hetmyer played a quickfire cameo of 29 runs to propel Delhi`s total past the 160-run mark.

Brief Scores:

Delhi Capitals 164/5 (Prithvi Shaw 48, Shikhar Dhawan 43, Mohammed Siraj 2-25) vs RCB 166/3 (Srikar Bharat 78*, Glenn Maxwell 51*, Anrich Nortje 2-24).