RCB beat DC by 9 wickets, and the game was all but over within the first 4 overs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar & Josh Hazlewood combined to limit DC to the lowest powerplay score ever, and there was no coming back for Axar Patel’s side.
But, what happened beyond the headlines?
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🎯 DC, Overs 1-6 – RCB’s pacers limit DC to 13/6 in the powerplay.
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🕳️ DC, Overs 8 & 11 – RCB’s concerning need for Romario Shepherd.
🚨 If you’re an RCB fan, I’d love if you could fill out this 2-minute survey on how you feel about the franchise this year. I plan to create a graphic story of your answers soon! 🚨
✍️ Written by Tarun Pratap, who runs The Rank Turner. Follow him on X.
21 days ago, DC lost to the Gujarat Titans on pitch No. 5 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. The visitors scored 210, and won the game by 1 run. Tonight, on the same pitch, RCB’s experienced pace duo reduced DC to 9/6 in the first 4 overs.
The carnage started immediately, and DC’s odd tactics were as much to blame as a brilliant Bhuvneshwar Kumar delivery. The home side had asked the 18-year old Sahil Parekh to make his debut against the defending champions, and the rookie took first strike against RCB’s Purple Cap holder.
Kumar’s first ball was on a good length, and swung away from the off-stump line. Parekh nervously edged the ball just short of gully. The RCB pacer noticed his nervous discomfort, and deviated from his set plan.
On the next ball, he went uncharacteristically full and on the stumps. The slot ball – this time swinging in towards the batter – shot past the debutant’s bat and uprooted his bat. Kumar realised Parekh was unlikely to catch the variation, unlikely to move around the crease, and would happily swing at a seemingly bad delivery to get off the mark.
Up next was KL Rahul, off his record breaking 152* (67) in the last game, and he was facing one of his favourite bowlers in the world. Rahul is the only batter to score more than 100 IPL runs against Josh Hazlewood, and is the Aussie’s single worst matchup across all T20s; no one has scored more runs against him than the DC opener.
Last week, DC beat Bangalore in Bangalore and Rahul targetted Hazlewood by launching the first ball of both his powerplay overs for a boundary. Unsurprisingly, after a tough first over for DC tonight, Hazlewood could probably guess how Rahul would greet him in the second over.
Rather than going to his usual hard length, Hazlewood pre-emptively went shorter and bet that Rahul would try to punish him with a pull on the unexpected delivery. It’s a strong option for the batter; it’s the shot that’s brought him his second most IPL runs since 2023, but one that he only plays at a control percentage of 68.61%. However, the surprising first ball and the vicious bounce meant that Rahul fell for Hazlewood’s bait, and skied it to the keeper.
Another young Indian batter, Sameer Rizvi, was next up. Hazlewood sensed a similar opportunity as Kumar did with Parekh. A fuller outswinger on the sixth-to-seventh stump line enticed a greedy drive – a shot that Rizvi usually plays quite well, with a control percentage of 83.33% since 2023. However, Rizvi’s eyes were bigger than his appetite, and his failure to move across to reach the ball meant he edged it to the keeper for a golden duck.
Hazlewood’s twofer had topped Kumar’s opening over, so back came the pacer from Meerut. Kumar went for a stock out swinger just outside off, and a half-hearted defensive shot by Tristan Stubbs was edged to slip. If that wicket had much to do with the batter’s laziness, the next was all about Kumar’s genius.
DC skipper Axar Patel walked in with a clear plan that eluded his teammates – stop swinging at dangerous balls. A good length outswinger was left well alone on his first ball, so Kumar changed tack. He went around the wicket and fuller to the left-handed batter, with the ball swinging in wildly past Axar’s grounded bat.
RCB heard a nick and went upstairs. The ball was so far from Axar’s bat, the third umpire didn’t even check UltraEdge. Turns out the nick was a slight knock against the off-stump, as Kumar’s deliveries were picking up swings of up to 3.8° on the night. Axar could no longer just leave the balls alone, so when an identical – if slightly shorter – delivery came in, the DC captain had to attempt a shot. This time it nicked his willow and carried to the keeper.
Not to be outdone, Hazlewood started the 4th over with four good length dots to Nitish Rana. After creating the pressure and laying the groundwork, Hazlewood went for the kill. A vicious short ball that rose into Rana’s body was uncomfortably defended with an abrupt attempt at a pull shot, but just looped up for an easy catch at slip. Despite his reasonable rate of scoring with the pull – Rana’s scored 30% of his runs since 2023 via the shot – the batter himself admitted he was uncomfortable against well-executed shorter balls in an interview in 2023.
The next two overs went off without incident as Abhishek Porel and David Miller got away with a couple of swings-and-misses, but largely just defended their way to 13/6 – the lowest IPL powerplay score of all time. The pre-game previews had expected a high-scoring game, and the post-powerplay overs by Rasikh Dar and Romario Shepherd proved the pundits’ point.
Even under wicket and run pressure, the two DC batters were able to score 30 runs between the 7th to 9th overs as mild errors in line and lengths were easily punished. Their attempts at shorter deliveries were a failure, as they were happily pulled for 15 runs off 5 balls. Shepherd and Rasikh bowled short without bounce or pace, while the powerplay pacers used both to create discomfort amongst their prey.
DC’s poor batting – especially from the youngsters and Stubbs – played a role in their immediate collapse, but Kumar & Hazlewood deserve credit for pitching their balls perfectly. Whether as part of their plans or as an improvisation against under pressure batters, both RCB pacers created a cricketing storm that ended the match well before Delhi’s infamous dust storms could threaten it.
Data from Deepcrease.
✍️ Written by Tarutr Malhotra, who runs Best of Cricket.
RCB have a problem. On a night when their powerplay pacers reduced DC to 13/6 and their spinners gave away a combined 16/2 in 6 overs, their 5th and 6th bowlers went for 42 runs in 4 overs.
In 8 games so far, Shepherd has 3 wickets at an average of 58, a strike rate of 24 and an economy of 14.5. These are his worst IPL numbers ever, but not by as large a margin as you would think. His all-time IPL average is 44.76, his strike rate is 21.6, and his economy is 12.38. These aren’t serious bowling numbers for an all-rounder, especially in the Impact Player Era.
Shepherd’s two overs tonight were indicative of why he’s unable to make an impact. Coming in the 8th over with DC down to 25/6, the bowler’s strategy made sense. Bowl a good length, leg stump line to the under-pressure batters, cramp their room, and force them to play uncomfortable aerial shots towards the boundary fielders on the leg side.
On paper, it’s a workable strategy. DC’s batters are forced to attack their best matchup and the opposition’s worst bowler, while in two minds about whether to accelerate or preserve their wicket. But, Shepherd’s shoddy execution of the strategy – wavering on both line and length – meant he was easily worked around with zero wicket threat for 21 runs in his 2 overs.
While he’s proven to be a good player in other franchise tournaments like the CPL and ILT20, Shepherd just isn’t a consistently good player at the highest level. While he had a decent year with RCB in 2025 – he struck every 14 balls at an economy of 10.79 – he was an optional extra rather than an important weapon. He bowled in just 7 innings, and played in just 8 games. He’s already matched those totals halfway through 2026.
Similarly, Shepherd has seen his overall bowling usage drop for an average West Indies side over the last few years. From an annus mirabilis in 2024 – which saw him bowl an average of 3.2 overs at an economy of 9.48 – he has only bowled 2.2 overs a game at an economy of 11.03 in 2026. For his career, Shepherd bowls at an economy of 10.29 away from home. He’s not a consistent bowler in the biggest moments.
When he was taken by RCB in the 2025 mega auction, he wasn’t this important. But, they made a mess of the roster in the last off-season. Liam Livingstone & Lungi Ngidi were released, while Yash Dayal was excused a week before the season started. This meant RCB has an increased dependence on Shepherd as an all-rounder, while leaving Abhinandan Singh & Rasikh as their only backup Indian pacers.
The former was dropped after conceding 122 runs in 3 games (and taking the same number of wickets – 3 – as Shepherd has all season!), while the latter has played reasonably well. Rasikh’s 8.59 economy and 15.83 SR seem good enough to be a backup pacer. However, those numbers are inflated by a single 4-24 performance against LSG. In his other 4 games, Rasikh has conceded 2-71 while only completing his 4-over quota once – a 0-40 effort in last week’s loss to DC.
On the night, RCB could afford to throw a couple of overs each to Shepherd and Rasikh to find some form. You could argue the latter at least picked up a wicket, but the former’s contributions had no silver lining. Tonight, it didn’t cost RCB. Against the best teams, 4 loose overs are the difference between a win and a loss.
Data from our new database.