Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane steered Delhi Capitals to a six-wicket win over Royal Challengers Bangalore here at Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Monday.
With this win, Delhi Capitals finish at the second spot with 16 points while RCB have too qualified as they have 14 points and will definitely finish in top-four. Chasing a moderate target of 153, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane formed a solid partnership of 88-run after Prithvi Shaw (9) departed early.
Meanwhile, Dhawan smashed a half-century and also completed 500 runs in this season. The left-handed batsman was picked by Shahbaz Ahmed in the 13th over. He played a knock of 54 off 41 balls.
Skipper Shreyas Iyer joined Rahane in the middle but the former departed after scoring just seven runs.
Rishabh Pant came in to bat at number five. Washington Sundar got rid of Rahane in the 18th over. He smashed 60 runs in 46 balls.
Marcus Stoinis and Pant then had a match-winning stand of 18-run. Pant scored 8* while Stoinis remained unbeaten on 10 runs.
For RCB, Shahbaz Ahmed scalped two wickets while Washington Sundar and Mohammed Siraj bagged one wicket each.
Earlier, Devdutt Padikkal and AB de Villiers played knocks of 50 and 35 respectively as Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) posted a total of 152/7 in the allotted twenty overs.
Sent into bat first, RCB got off to a steady start as openers Devdutt Padikkal and Joshua Philippe put on 25 runs for the first wicket. However, this partnership was broken by Kagiso Rabada in the fifth over as he dismissed Philippe (12).
Virat Kohli then joined Padikkal in the middle and the duo kept the scoreboard moving for RCB. Kohli was given a big reprieve in the 10th over as his catch was dropped by Anrich Nortje off the bowling of Axar Patel.
Both Kohli and Padikkal eventually put together 57 runs for the second wicket. Delhi Capitals came back strongly in the match as Ravichandran sent Kohli (29) back to the pavilion in the 13th over, reducing RCB to 82/2.
Brief Scores: Royal Challengers Bangalore 152/7 (Devdutt Padikkal 50, AB de Villiers 35, Anrich Nortje 3-33) lost to Delhi Capitals 154/4 (Ajinkya Rahane 60, Shikhar Dhawan 54, Shahbaz Ahmed 2-26) by six wickets.
