Delhi Capitals made their way to the playoffs for the first time since 2012 as they defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 16 runs in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Sunday.
Chasing a total of 188 runs, RCB's openers, Parthiv Patel and Virat Kohli, gave their side a brilliant start. Both formed a 63-run partnership before Kagiso Rabada got hold of Patel (39).
AB de Villiers then joined Skipper Kolhi. However, their partnership did not last long as Kohli became a victim of Axar Patel.
Shivam Dube then formed a 35-run partnership with De Villiers before the latter got out on 17 runs. Heinrich Klaasen then joined Dube. However, Amit Mishra sent both the batsmen back to the pavilion in the 13th over.
The rest of the batsmen struggled a bit to form a good partnership as they kept on losing wickets. However, Marcus Stoinis and Gurkeerat Singh formed a 49-run partnership which helped their side get closer to the target.
Singh scored 27 runs before he gave away his wicket which brought Washington Sundar to bat but Sundar too was sent back in the very next over.
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Stoinis played a scintillating knock of 32 runs off 24 deliveries but it was not enough to take his side over the line as they lost the match by 16 runs.
Earlier, Delhi got off to a steady start as both the openers, Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan, struck regular boundaries. However, Shaw gave away his wicket in the fourth over after scoring 18 runs.
Dhawan was then accompanied by the skipper Shreyas Iyer and both stitched an impeccable partnership of 68 runs.
Dhawan scored his fifth half-century and with this Dhawan surpassed Sunrisers Hyderabad's batsman Jonny Bairstow run tally of 445 runs to become the second highest run-getter in this season of IPL with 451 runs.
Iyer too scored a half-century. However, Dhawan (50) and Iyer (52) both were sent back to the pavilion in quick succession.
Shortly after that, Rishabh Pant and Colin Ingram too lost their wickets.
Sherfane Rutherford and Axar Patel then came out to bat and both formed a crucial partnership of 46 runs which helped their side post a target of 188 for the visitors.
Delhi will now visit Chennai to compete with Chennai Super Kings on May 1 while RCB will host Rajasthan Royals on April 30.
Brief scores: Delhi Capitals (Shreyas Iyer 52, Shikhar Dhawan 50, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-41) defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore (Parthiv Patel 39, Marcus Stoinis 32*, Amit Mishra 2-29) by 16 runs.