Delhi Capitals beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 6 wickets – IPL 2026 Match Report
Delhi Capitals produced one of the great IPL chase recoveries at M.Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru on Saturday, April 18 – coming back from 18 for 3 (with Axar Patel already retired hurt) to beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru by 6 wickets with one ball to spare. RCB’s 175/8 looked competitive on their home ground. It wasn’t enough.
RCB’s 175: Salt Leads, Middle Order Collapses
Philip Salt set the tone with a bristling 63 off 38 balls – four fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 165 – giving RCB a platform the rest of the innings couldn’t fully build on. Virat Kohli went for 19 off 13 in the powerplay, and while Salt and Devdutt Padikkal (18 off 13) kept the scoreboard moving, the middle order stuttered badly.
At 99/1 in the 10th over, RCB were well-placed. But Padikkal fell to Axar Patel in the 10th and Salt followed three balls later – caught Tristan Stubbs, bowled Kuldeep Yadav, for 63 – and suddenly it was 105/3. From there the innings never fully recovered.
Tim David chipped in with 26 off 17, and Rajat Patidar hit a quick 8 including a six, but the collapse from 105/3 to 149/6 inside six overs was damaging. Jitesh Sharma (14 off 20) slowed at the wrong time, Romario Shepherd fell lbw first ball, and Krunal Pandya’s run-out for 12 in the penultimate over killed any chance of a late surge. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rasikh Salam Dar batted out the tail without scoring, and RCB closed on 175/8 from their 20.
For DC with the ball: Kuldeep Yadav (2/32), Lungi Ngidi (2/39), Axar Patel (2/18 from 3 overs) and Mukesh Kumar (1/32) did the damage. Auqib Nabi (3-0-36-0) was the weak link.
The full scorecard is available on the RCB vs Delhi Capitals match page at Statz Cricket.
DC’s Chase: Chaos, Then Composure
Delhi’s chase was a disaster for three overs and a masterclass for seventeen. Axar Patel retired hurt early – he’d made 26 off 19 but left the field before the innings had settled. Bhuvneshwar Kumar then ripped through the top order: Pathum Nissanka lbw for 1, Karun Nair caught Salt for 5, Sameer Rizvi caught Jitesh for 2. Three wickets for Bhuvi inside 3 overs, DC at 18 for 3 and looking at a crisis.
At 18 for 3 inside three overs, chasing 176, most teams fold. Delhi Capitals didn’t.
Lokesh Rahul steadied the ship brilliantly. The DC captain made 57 off 34 – six fours and two sixes at a strike rate of 167 – rebuilding the innings from the crisis position alongside Tristan Stubbs. Together they shifted the game. Rahul eventually went for 57, caught Kohli off Krunal Pandya, with the total on 87 in the 10th over – but he’d done what was needed.
From 87 with Rahul gone, Stubbs and David Miller took DC home without further alarm. Stubbs was immense – 60 not out off 47 balls, four fours and a six, calm and measured throughout the middle overs. Miller finished it with a burst of 22 off 10 balls including two sixes, the final statement from a DC batting lineup that refused to panic when it had every reason to.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s 3/26 was the standout RCB bowling performance – miserly in a chase where the total required DC to push from ball one. Krunal Pandya’s 1/24 from four overs was tidy. Beyond that, Rasikh Salam Dar (0/40), Josh Hazlewood (0/38) and Suyash Sharma (0/31) were expensive in a target-chasing game that got away from them.
Statz MVP: Axar Patel
Axar Patel takes the Statz MVP award with a match-high rating of 68.8/100 – earned across both disciplines. With the ball he took 2/18 from 3 overs, removing Devdutt Padikkal and Tim David at the crease when RCB were looking to accelerate in the middle overs. With the bat he made 26 off 19 before retiring hurt – a contribution that counted. His bowling impact, combined with the contextual weight of the DC win, clinched the MVP. He was also named Player of the Match. The Statz Rating combines batting impact, bowling impact and match context.
Statz Ratings – Top Performers
Axar Patel leads at 68.8/100, ahead of Bhuvneshwar Kumar (65.3/100) – whose 3/26 in a chase situation is exactly the kind of high-leverage bowling the metric rewards. Lokesh Rahul earned 48.5/100 for his match-turning 57, Philip Salt 46.2/100 for top-scoring in the first innings, and Krunal Pandya 41.4/100 for his tight bowling plus late-order runs. Tristan Stubbs rounds out the top six at 35.3/100.
Full Statz Ratings for all players are available on the RCB vs Delhi Capitals match page at Statz Cricket.
Turning Point
The turning point was Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s third wicket – Sameer Rizvi caught by Jitesh Sharma in the third over with DC 18 for 3. At that moment the game looked all but done for DC. Instead, Rahul and Stubbs absorbed the pressure and rebuilt from there. Had Bhuvi taken a fourth – either Stubbs or Rahul early in their partnership – the game was RCB’s. He didn’t, and Rahul’s 57 shifted the momentum irrevocably.
Match Context
The win moves Delhi Capitals to 6 points from 5 matches (W3, L2) – still in the hunt but needing consistency. RCB drop to 8 points from 6 (W4, L2) but stay second in the IPL 2026 table. For DC, this is a morale-shifting result – coming back from 18/3 to beat second-placed RCB on their own ground sends a statement about this side’s character.
