The capitals of Delhi took a clear place at the top of the Indian Premier League table with a 59-run victory over Royal Challengers Bangalore.
A strong batting
display that Marshall Steins took advantage of a late attack on Delhi and was
put on the bat by Virat Kohli.
Shikhar Dhawan
made an aggressive start in the 68-run stand with Prithviraj Shaw (42), who
scored 32 runs in the 10th over before leaving.
Rishabh Pant scored
37 runs but it was Estonia who did it in the closing overs. The Australian
all-rounder struck an unbeaten 53 with a pair of six fours and a six.
Bangalore's
response never came after a poor start which soon led them to a 43-3 loss to AB
de Villiers.
Captain Kohli
top-scored with 43 before becoming one of four wickets for the great Kagiso
Rabada, who now has 12 runs at an average of 12.50 in this year's tournament.
There were also
two wickets for Anrich Nortje and Axar Patel; the Royal Challengers finally
embarrassed 137-9 in their 20 overs.
Estonian Styles
Royal Challengers
The Estonian had
endured a thinning since the start of the new IPL season with a 53 against
Kings XI Punjab in the Delhi opener.
He then went on to
score just 16 runs in three sixes but returned to his devastating innings
against Bangalore, reaching his half-century at 24 when he added 89 for the
third wicket with Pant. Were
FINCH SPARED DESPITE R-ASH MOVE
In 2019,
Ravichandran Ashwin caused a stir when, as the captain of Kings XI, he
dismissed Rajinhan Royals' Jose Butler at the end of the non-striker, the
batsmen had left their crease before the ball arrived.
There was almost a
repetition when Ashwin created a similar situation with Aaron Finch here, but
the Indian spinner chose to stare at the Bangalore out-of-batsman and then a
sharp smile.
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