DC vs RCB: Krunal, Kohli take Bengaluru to top of table

Krunal Pandya (73 not out off 47, 5x4, 4x6) and Virat Kohli (51 off 47, 4x4) scored half-centuries and shared a match-winning century partnership to take Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) to a six-wicket victory over hosts Delhi Capitals (DC) in an IPL 2025 match on Sunday night (April 27).

RCB successfully chased down 163 in 18.3 overs (165/4) at Arun Jaitley Stadium. The win took RCB to the top of the table. Also, this was the Bengaluru franchise's sixth win in a row in away games this season.

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With 14 points from 10 games, RCB are No. 1 in the standings while DC slipped to fourth (12 points from 9 matches).

Krunal's 1st fifty since 9 years

Krunal scored his first IPL fifty since 2016. The left-hander paced his innings perfectly while batting alongside chase master Kohli, who is now the Orange Cap holder with 443 runs. The Purple Cap too belongs to RCB now, with Josh Hazlewood leading the wicket-takers table with 18 scalps.

The duo shared a 119-run stand off 84 balls as RCB chased down 163 in 18.3 overs to extend their unbeaten run away from home.

At 26 for three, RCB felt the heat before Krunal and Kohli bailed them out. In his maiden season for RCB, Krunal has made valuable contributions with both bat and ball.

On Sunday night, Kohli played the perfect anchor as Krunal came up with timely hits on a difficult surface to deliver a fine win for his team. His straight hit through the line off Mukesh Kumar and an aerial drive over cover off the wily Kuldeep Yadav stood out among his four sixes.

Kohli's consistency has been remarkable this season, and the knock against DC was his sixth 50-plus score in 10 innings. The highlight of his solid effort was the straight drive off Mitchell Starc.

The night, however, belonged to Krunal, who collected only his second 50-plus score in 116 IPL innings.

KL Rahul top-scores for DC

Earlier, RCB put the squeeze on DC in the middle overs through Hazlewood (2/36) and the spinners to limit the home team to 162 for 8.

KL Rahul (41 off 39 balls) was the top-scorer for DC but it was Tristan Stubbs (34 off 18 balls) who helped the hosts post a fighting total.

RCB put the opposition in to bat, expecting better batting conditions during the run chase.

Faf du Plessis (22 off 26 balls) returned from injury to join Abhishek Porel (28 off 11) at the top of the order but it was the latter who ensured DC reached 52 for two in the powerplay. The southpaw, who has been in fine form this season, came up with a couple of sizzling sixes in his entertaining cameo. Both came off Bhuvneshwar Kumar (3/33) – one was a left-handed hit over mid-wicket and the second was a pick-up shot over fine leg.

As veteran du Plessis struggled to get going at the other end, Porel found the ropes with relative ease.

Hazlewood gets Porel

Lead RCB pacer Hazlewood, who has been relentless with his hard lengths, took three balls to get the breakthrough as he cramped Porel to have him caught behind down the leg side.

Karun Nair, who began with a short arm pull off Hazlewood for a boundary, played an ordinary shot off Yash Dayal in the following over, and his mishit was pouched at mid-wicket. The spinners got into operation after the powerplay and overs 7-10 was the phase when RCB were able to stem the flow of runs, conceding just 20 runs off the four overs from Suyash Sharma and Krunal Pandya, who got rid of du Plessis in that period.

It was only towards the end of the innings that DC managed to get some momentum, all thanks to the blitzkrieg from Stubbs.

The 18th and 19th over from Hazlewood and Dayal yielded 17 and 19 runs, enabling DC to cross the 160-run mark.

(With agency inputs)