AHMEDABAD, APRIL 28
Royal Challengers Bangalore hung in against Shimron Hetmyer and Rishabh Pant's late charge to beat Delhi Capitals by just one run and go atop the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.
Bangalore's fifth win in six games took them to 10 points, leaving Delhi and Chennai Super Kings both at eight points.
Bangalore, which scored 171-5 on the back of AB de Villiers' electrifying unbeaten 75 off 42 balls, had the game in control until the 17th over before Hetmyer brought Delhi back with some powerful hitting.
Needing 46 off the last three overs, the West Indian left-hander blazed three sixes off Kyle Jamieson to bring down the target to 25 runs from two overs.
Although Harshal Patel conceded just one boundary, his penultimate over went for 11 which left Mohammed Siraj with 14 runs to defend in the last over.
Siraj made the task difficult for Delhi by conceding four off his first four balls before Delhi captain Pant's back-to-back boundaries could only take his team to 170-4.
That left Hetmyer on his knees in disappointment as the left-hander smashed an unbeaten 53 off just 25 balls, but could face only a ball in Siraj's last over. Pant consumed 48 balls for his unbeaten 58 which featured six boundaries.
"The way Siraj started the last over, it gave us confidence," Bangalore skipper Virat Kohli said. "For the most part, I think we were top in this game with our bowlers ... there wasn't any dew tonight thanks to that little sandstorm in the middle and we ended up bowling with a dry ball."
Earlier, Delhi had the strong Bangalore batting lineup in check at 139-5 until the 18th over. Fast bowlers Avesh Khan (1-24) and Ishant Sharma (1-26) bowled well upfront to dispatch opening pair of Kohli (12) and Devdutt Padikkal (17).
But Pant's decision to give Marcus Stoinis the 20th over cost Delhi 23 crucial runs. De Villiers turned the tide in Bangalore's favor as the experienced South African Twenty20 batsman smacked three sixes and in the process also completed 5,000 runs in the IPL.
De Villiers, who came in the 9th over with the score at 60-3, scored bulk of the runs and hit three fours and five sixes in his second unbeaten half century this season.
"Feeling disappointed," Pant said. "I think they were 10-15 runs extra on this wicket but Hetty (Hetmyer) played a brilliant innings, because of him we got close."
