IPL 2023: Phil Salt's 87 guides Delhi Capitals to seven-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore

Phil Salt’s 87 overshadowed Virat Kohli and Mahipal Lomror’s fifties as Delhi Capitals (DC) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) by seven wickets in an Indian Premier League (IPL) match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Saturday.

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Having opted to bat first, Kohli and Du Plessis forged an 82-run stand for the opening wicket before RCB lost both Du Plessis and Glenn Maxwell in the same over, to Mitchell Marsh.

Eventually, Kohli and Mahipal Lomror forged a 55-run stand for the third wicket to take RCB to 181/4 from 20 overs.

Needing to win every game from here on to have a shot at a playoff berth, Delhi’s overseas batters played fearlessly to gun down the total in 16.4 overs.

Besides Salt’s sensational 87 off 45 balls, David Warner (22 off 14), Mitchell Marsh (26 off 17) and Rilee Rossouw (29 not out off 21) produced timely cameos.

It was Delhi’s second consecutive win and they need to win their remaining four games while RCB suffered their fifth loss in 10 matches. Salt and Warner came out all guns blazing as Delhi raced to 60 for no loss in five overs.

The fifth over in which Mohammad Siraj conceded 19 runs gave Delhi the initial advantage and RCB could not fight back from there.

The premier India fast bowler could have avoided a heated exchange with Salt after the latter smashed him for couple of sixes and a four. The flat six over extra cover off Siraj stood out in Salt’s special innings.

Delhi’s performance also highlighted their dependance on the foreign players with the Indian batters under-performing. Earlier, Kohli mania swept the Feroz Shah Kotla as Delhi fans, on another day, were seen wearing the RCB jersey of their favourite player.

Phil Salt is on song tonight