Hazlewood headlines rare bowlers' day in IPL as Bengaluru crush Delhi
NEW DELHI, April 27 : Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar routed Delhi Capitals on a rare bowler-dominated day in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Monday to set up Royal Challengers Bengaluru's comprehensive nine-wicket victory at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Two days after Punjab Kings chased down a record target of 265 at the same ground, Hazlewood (4-12) and Bhuvneshwar (3-5) wreaked havoc to bundle out Delhi for 75 in 16.3 overs.
Delhi were six down for eight inside four overs and tumbled to the lowest powerplay score in IPL history at 13-6 on a surface offering enough seam and variable bounce for the Bengaluru bowlers to exploit.
Defending champions Bengaluru lost the wicket of Jacob Bethell before chasing down the target in 6.3 overs to cement their second place, behind Punjab Kings.
"Probably turning up here after 500-plus runs in the last game, you don't expect that," Australian player-of-the-match Hazlewood said.
"I just followed Bhuvi. There was a little bit there in the first six overs. It was a little bit up and down. Once the ball got soft it became consistent."
Bengaluru did not put a foot wrong right from the toss which their captain Rajat Patidar won and elected to field.
What followed was a procession of Delhi batters returning to the pavilion failing to negotiate the impeccable line and length of Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar.
Hazlewood claimed the crucial wicket of KL Rahul, who smashed 152 not out at the same ground on Saturday, in the first over.
Three of Delhi's top six batters scored ducks and the other three managed single-digit scores.
Abhishek Porel (30) and David Miller (19) provided brief resistance but Delhi had effectively lost the match after their spectacular early meltdown.
Kyle Jamieson dismissed Bethell for 20 but Virat Kohli (23) and Devdutt Padikkal (34) ensured there was no drama and Kohli hit T Natarajan for back-to-back sixes to seal Bengaluru's victory.
Delhi slumped to seventh place in the 10-team league.
