DC beat RCB by 6 wickets, but it’s hard to argue DC are a fundamentally better side. Nearly everything had to go wrong during the last 30 overs of this game for RCB to lose, and they still took it to the second last ball. It doesn’t mean they don’t have problems though.
But, what happened beyond the headlines?
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🧂 RCB, Overs 1-10 – Phil pours Salt over DC’s bowling plans.
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💥 RCB, Overs 11-20 – A Jitesh-inspired RCB collapse.
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📈 DC, Overs 1-10 – KL Rahul defies his own odds.
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🕸️ DC, Overs 11-20 – Axar exploits RCB’s bowling strategy.
✍️ Written by Aarush Adil Khan.
Phil Salt had trouble getting his innings going tonight. The outfield was slow, the pitch was gripping, Virat Kohli had fallen early, and the DC bowlers had a plan for the English batter. They knew that he could struggle against pace deliveries outside off, and they kept targeting that channel.
Since 2023, Salt has been dismissed 13 times by the IPL’s fast bowlers in that offside channel. In particular, good length deliveries that cramped him had picked up 5 wickets. Today, the DC bowlers targeted that region mercilessly. Of the 38 balls faced by the RCB opener, 18 were in that offside channel and he only scored 25 runs in those deliveries.
Salt kept his wits about him though, even during the dry patches. He got his first boundary off a too-wide Auqib Nabi delivery targeting the channel on 0.3, then didn’t hit the ropes again until Nabi gave him another similar ball on 4.1 that was cut to backward point. Salt took advantage of DC bowler’s relative IPL inexperience at this level to hit another 4 and a 6 off the over.
The first boundary came off Auqib Nabi on over 0.3, who was wayward with his lines. It was a good length delivery outside off. After that, he didn’t score a boundary for two overs. It was a similar delivery on 4.1, by the same bowler; a delivery that got cut to backward point for four. Nabi, in fact, went for eighteen runs in the 5th over, including two boundaries and a maximum.
In fact, Salt kept the tempo up against every bowler tonight apart from Axar Patel (whom he scored 2 off 2 against), and Mukesh Kumar (4 off 6). Kumar – who showed off the best variation and execution of all the DC bowlers across phases and batters – hinted at what was to come in his spell against Salt.
Kumar was constantly changing his length against the Englishman. Not in a wayward, loss of control manner, but in a deliberate attempt to keep him guessing. He went full, good length and yorker to Salt, and stuck to that outside off range that cramped him. The result was three dots, plus a near catch off a back of length delivery that stood up more than Salt was expecting it to.
Ironically, Salt finally succumbed to the offside plan against a spinner rather than a pacer. While he scored 19 off 11 versus Kuldeep Yadav, the numbers bely the battle. Their first interaction – in the 7th over – was underlined by the spinner’s control against Salt. Multiple 85 KPH balls in the offside channel limited the batter to 3 (3).
In the 9th over, Salt decided to go on the offensive. A loose fuller ball was dispatched above long-off for the Englishman’s 50, but a couple of more cramped balls kept him at 2 (2) for the rest of the over. In the 11th over, Salt smacked another loose delivery over deep-midwicket, but Kuldeep went for the jugular on that offside channel.
Three off-pitched deliveries floated away from the batter at varying speeds, and – after two swings-and-misses – Salt’s desperate heave found the long-off fielder that he had cleared a couple of overs earlier.
However, despite DC’s plan eventually bearing fruit, it came at a steep cost. Salt’s 63 (38) had accelerated RCB to 105-3 in 10.4 overs, with the defending champions’ two biggest hitters – Rajat Patidar and Tim David – at the crease and ready to end the game after the first innings.
Data from DeepCrease, & the author’s own ball tracking.
✍️ Written by Tarutr Malhotra, who runs Best of Cricket.
Before tonight, RCB had averaged an RPO of 10+ in the middle overs and 14+ at the death, and was looking at a minimum score of 230 when Salt got out. And yet, they ended up with just a 175-run total, including more wickets (5) than boundaries (4) in the last 8 overs.
There are a few different moving parts that explain their collapse, so let’s take this one at a time; (1) Rajat Patidar’s early wicket threw RCB’s innings construction into disarray, (2) Jitesh Sharma’s terrible form this season tanked the recovery, & (3) DC’s fantastic bowling exploited the chaos.
In the 12th over, Patidar – who was averaging 55.5 at a strike rate of 213.46 – nicked a wide yorker and was out for just 8 (4). Which shouldn’t be a problem for this powerhouse batting order, except RCB have become overly reliant on Patidar to build upon their Top 3’s starts in 2026.
RCB’s top order has been remarkably consistent in the last two years; Patidar’s average entry point in 2025 was 8.1 overs, while his average entry point in 2026 before tonight was 8.2 overs. Which gives us an easy way to compare RCB’s dependence on him – what percentage of the team’s runs does Patidar score between overs 8-20 in 2025 v 2026?
Patidar is the most dependable middle order bat RCB have, topping the charts in both years. But, the difference is stark. Last year, he was responsible for 16.5% of the team’s runs after the 8th over, but this year he is responsible for a whopping 33.1% of RCB’s runs in the same period. Part of this difference is because of his own rapid improvement, but part of this is because of problem number two; Jitesh Sharma.
Jitesh kicked off the season with extreme confidence, telling AB de Villiers that he prays for his team’s top order to collapse so he has a chance to be the hero. It’s abrasive, but not undeserved. He averaged 37.28 at a SR of 176.35 in 2025, often coming to RCB’s rescue – including scoring 24 (10) in the final – late in games.
However, he has struggled to replicate that form this year. After tonight’s torrid 14 (20) that stalled RCB’s innings, Jitesh is averaging just 10.4 at a SR of 110.63 in the 2026 IPL. However, it’s not just his run-scoring that’s a problem. His inability to keep his wicket – tonight’s outing represented 42.56% of his balls faced this year – is warping the team’s middle order.
As we noted after RCB’s loss to RR last week, the defending champions have a middle order problem. Jitesh is their only lower order bat that can be trusted to come out before the 14th over in an innings. Every other RCB finisher’s strike rate drops like a stone if they are asked to do any innings building rather than just power hitting.
Tonight, David was promoted up the order ahead of Jitesh because of the wicketkeeper’s poor season so far. This matters because even on a good day – and David scored 26 (17) today – the Aussie is not going to last long enough to keep pressure off the tailenders. His average balls faced in 2025 was 11.2, and his average balls faced in 2026 (before tonight) was 13.6. Even on nights where he plays well, he’s still likely to get out early and put pressure on the lower order.
Which is how RCB ended up with Krunal Pandya – who was playing his first death overs innings this season – and a struggling Jitesh as their final specialist batters for the last 22 balls of the innings. They couldn’t accelerate out of fear of losing their wicket, and DC’s incredibly smart bowling took full advantage.
Kumar started the collapse with a pitch perfect wide yorker to pick up Patidar’s wicket, reminiscent of hist perfect execution all night. The threat of Ngidi’s slower balls kept all his opponents from trying anything but the straight that was well covered. Kuldeep’s well-disguised variations took the wicket of RCB’s one destructive batter on the night. Axar’s perfect spells kept the run pressure up on a struggling middle order. Natarajan’s late introduction (and perfect yorker execution) quashed any hope of a death overs blowout to help RCB to a respectable total.
Jitesh is still important to RCB with the gloves, and for the batting potential he showed last season. But, this middle order issue has now been the central factor in both of RCB’s losses this season, and is a weakness that can be exploited on a bad day.
Data from our new database.
✍️ Written by Aadityan Ganesh & Atharv Tambade, who run Pacers with Pretty Feet.
Despite the modest target tonight, Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s brilliant powerplay bowling put DC’s run chase into peril. On average, IPL teams lose 1.4 wickets in the powerplay. DC lost 3 tonight. Usually in situations like this, KL Rahul and Tristan Stubbs – DC’s batters at the crease going into the middle overs – tend to retreat into their shell. While the Protea played true to form, the DC wicketkeeper defied his stereotype as a cautious player.
While Rahul’s middle order numbers are better than his reputation belies, he does traditionally have a problem when chasing games after early wickets. In 15 IPL innings when Rahul has been forced to lead the innings after 2+ wickets fell in the powerplay, he has a true strike rate of +4.53 in the middle overs.
(True Strike Rate adjusts a batter’s strike rate for the ground, the phase of the innings, and the era in which he is batting. A middle-overs batter playing most of his cricket in Chennai in 2011 is not operating under the same conditions as a finisher for RCB in 2026; TSR attempts to normalize innings across those differences.)
While Rahul’s positive TSR reflects well, it is skewed by two big innings; an impossible 245-run chase v PBKS in 2018, and a miserably easy 135-run chase v CSK in 2021. Take away those two outlier innings, and Rahul’s TSR in the phase in these games drops to -13.34. His default response to early damage is usually to go at barely above run-a-ball through the middle-overs.
Stubbs is no better, as he goes at an absurdly low -37.74 for a batter of his talents. The South African has turned himself into a finisher-anchor who focuses on quick runs over explosive shots in the middle phase. The CSK game earlier this season was typical of Stubbs, as he turned a 13 (12) start into a 60 (38) innings. Combined with Rahul’s natural slowdown in tough chases, and DC could very realistically turn a medium difficulty chase into a high pressure one.
However, Rahul uncharacteristically took charge tonight. First he relentlessly attacked an only mildly wayward Josh Hazlewood in the powerplay – taking him for two boundaries and two 6s off multiple audacious shots. Then, during the middle overs, the DC duo became particularly calculated.
Stubbs and Rahul rotated Pandya for 10 singles and a double in his first two overs, while punishing Suyash’s half-trackers. Despite his poor 120.7 strike rate versus IPL leg-spin since 2023, Rahul took the game to Suyash by repeatedly charging down the pitch. Coming into the game, he had only scored 27 (31) with 15 dots against the RCB leggie but tonight he put Sharma away for 21 (10) and no dots.
A high-intent loft off Pandya finally took down Rahul after 10.1 overs, but the wicketkeeper had given his team the perfect start. He shepherded them from 18/3 to 87/4, with just 89 runs needed from 59 balls to beat the defending champions at home. For the second season running, Rahul reminded RCB that the Chinnaswamy is as much his ground as it is theirs.
Data from Cricsheets.
✍️ Written by Tarutr Malhotra, who runs Best of Cricket.
When Rahul got out on the first ball of the 11th over, David Miller was expected to walk out. Instead, DC skipper Axar Patel promoted himself up the order and it caused havoc because suddenly RCB’s wafer-thin bowling options would have to re-jig themselves on the fly.
While RCB’s bowling plans and execution have been a big part of their success in this Mega Auction cycle, their tactics in 2026 have been quite predictable. 6 overs of pace in the powerplay, spinners Pandya & Suyash to bowl at least 6 overs in the middle, and the topline pacers – Kumar & Hazlewood – to return at the death.
DC’s gamble was simple. Miller & Axar are both fantastic middle order bats, but each has their own weakness. Miller slows down against SLAs (117.4 against them in the IPL since 2023) while Axar is susceptible to right-arm pacers (118.8). Pandya – RCB’s SLA – is in the form of his life, and had just gotten Rahul out. Frontline pacer Kumar was pulled after taking 3-9 in his first two overs, and was clearly being rested for the death.
Hazlewood…had gone at 13.5 in his two powerplay overs – just the third time in 41 IPL games where he’s been so expensive before the field spreads out. Plus, by putting in Axar – who bats at 186.5 against SLAs in the IPL since 2023 and 150 against legbreak bowlers like Suyash – DC could force RCB to re-build their middle overs bowling strategy on the fly while defending an under-par total.
The strategy worked perfectly. RCB were forced to bowl Rasikh Dar and Hazlewood in the middle overs to counter Axar – they conceded 25 runs in their 2 overs – while Suyash’s last over went for 8 runs as well. Even with Axar retiring hurt in the 16th over, the early usage of RCB’s pacers meant that their only options for the 20th over were Suyash and Romario Shepherd.
The former had gone at 10.33 RPO on the night, while the latter had not bowled at all. The last over the West Indian had bowled for RCB? Another first-full-over-of-the-game versus the Mumbai Indians where he conceded 26 runs. He duly conceded 17 runs in 5 (poor) balls to hand the game to DC.
The defending champions were left in a bind because of the decision they made five months ago when they retained Yash Dayal. The pacer had bowled 17.6% of RCB’s overs in 2025’s winning campaign, but everyone knew the likelihood of him playing this year was minimal after he was arrested over multiple sexual assault and child endangerment cases in the off-season.
RCB knew of the cases, and decided to retain him before the Mini Auction anyway. Beyond the moral revulsion, it also left them hoping for a miracle which never materialised. A week before the 2026 campaign kicked off, RCB announced that Dayal would miss the season – and no quality replacement was available so late in the day.
RCB have tried Abhinandan Singh and Rasikh – with some success – but there is still a gaping hole in their bowling. RCB don’t have a reliable sixth bowler, either for when their bowlers are off-colour or when the opposition hits upon an impactful counter strategy.
Today, RCB had to deal with both problems – and still nearly defended a 175-run total. This is a really good side, but one that might fall short at the business end of the season because of complacent planning and poor form.
Data from our new database.