Royal Challengers Bengaluru will not make a mountain out of a molehill after losing against Delhi Capitals. RCB, playing at home, failed to bat with the bat on April 18, scoring just 175 runs against Axar Patel’s Delhi. By Chinnaswamy’s lofty standards, they were well short of par total but managed to take the game to Saturday’s final.
Despite heavily restricting Delhi for most of the game, the total proved too short as David Miller and Tristan Stubbs ended the chase with one ball remaining. RCB Director of Cricket Mo Bobat reacted to their first loss at home and said the team was not going to overanalyze the game.
“Yeah, we probably weren’t as fluid as we normally are. Obviously, we’ve been a pretty strong batting unit in the games we’ve played so far. I wouldn’t analyze it too much. We’ll review honestly like we always do,” Bobat said at the post-match press conference.
“We will always consider the things we did well and the things we could improve on. At the end of the day, we batted very well in this competition. So we will take some lessons from this game and then try to get back into a normal rhythm in the next one,” he added.
| RCB vs DC: Scorecard | Highlights |
RCB’s innings started well with Phil Salt taking on Auqib Nabi in the powerplay. RCB were 99/2 in 10-overs but were unable to capitalize on it due to a good performance by the Delhi bowling unit.
In the second half of the innings, Lungi Ngidi, Mukesh Kumar and Kuldeep Yadav put in a brilliant performance to restrict the home side to just 175 runs for the loss of 8 wickets.
Bobat admitted that RCB’s batsmen were unable to negate the tacky Chinnaswamy pitch and ended up scoring by a couple of runs. RCB captain Rajat Patidar echoed the same sentiment in the post-match interview where he said the team probably missed 15-20 runs on Saturday.
“Yeah, it was really close, but I feel like we were 15-20 runs short. The way we started initially, especially VK bhai and Salt, I think they started well, but then, I think 12 or 13 overs, we lost wickets in a couple of overs and that put us on the back seat. I think it was in the first innings, Paticky.”
“But I think the way we stretched in the last game is a positive sign for us. But I think I’ve just discussed with the bowlers that they have to be clear about what they’re going to do. I think it’s a long tournament but we’ll go back and see where we made mistakes and fix them,” he added.
RCB FIGHT BACK vs DC
Despite the sub-par total, the RCB bowlers fought back, especially Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who conceded just 26 runs from his four overs, in return for 3 wickets.
RCB dropped Bhuvi and Josh Hazlewood in a bid to suffocate Delhi, but they were left with only part-timer Romario Shepherd in the final over. Romario had 15 runs to defend and gave away just 2 singles in his first two balls, setting off an alarm in the Delhi Capitals dugout.
However, he was unable to sustain it and was hit with two sixes and a four in the next three balls, sealing RCB’s fate in the game.
Bobat responded to the move by stating that RCB had no choice and that the risk had not passed on the day.
“There comes a point in the game where you feel you are behind in the game. So to get back into the game or maybe even overtake the game, you have to use your master bowlers. So we felt we had to bowl both Hazlewood and Bhuvi when we did to make it as difficult as possible later in the game,” said the director of cricket.
“Obviously there’s a bit of risk involved. It’s a tough ask to bowl Romario with up to two international batsmen and two international finishers. So it’s always going to be a tough ask. But we had to take the game as deep as possible,” concluded Bobat.
RCB will now take a break of almost a week before playing Gujarat Titans at home on April 24.
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Issued by:
Kingshuk Kusari
Published on:
18 Apr 2026 22:13 IST
