<p>Bengaluru: The wizardry of spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam helped Delhi Capitals stage a stirring comeback to restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a below-par 163 for seven in the IPL match here on Thursday.</p><p>Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep (2/17) and leg-spinner Nigam (2/18) adjusted their lengths beautifully on a pitch that had a touch of sluggishness to drag RCB innings into a marshy pit after the Capitals chose to bowl first.</p><p>But Delhi's decision to field looked utterly obtuse as Royal Challengers went off the blocks like a galloping horse, going past the 50-run mark in just three overs.</p>.IPL 2025 | DC win toss, put RCB to bat first.<p>Central to that charge was opener Phil Salt's turbo-charged innings of 37 off 17 balls.</p><p>The England batter hammered Mitchell Starc for a sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4, 6 to collect 24 runs in the third over.</p><p>However, Salt got run out in a yes-no situation involving Virat Kohli (22, 14b). Kohli and Salt added 61 runs off 24 balls for the opening stand.</p><p>But the introduction of leg-spinner Vipraj Nigam proved a course-altering point.</p><p>Nigam gave away just two runs in the fifth over, and pacer Mohit Sharma followed that up with another tidy few balls in the next over.</p><p>Pressurised by a series of dot balls, Devdutt Padikkal (1) went for a release shot off Mohit, but it lacked any kinetic energy as Axar Patel completed an easy catch at the edge of the circle.</p><p>Kohli, who began to unshackle himself with a six off Nigam over long-on, soon fell to the same bowler while trying to clobber a delivery wide on the off-stump.</p><p>Thereafter, the home side lost the wickets of Jitesh Sharma (4) and Liam Livingstone (3) in quick succession as they slipped to 102 for five in the 13th over, a far cry from the start they had.</p><p>In fact, the hosts lost five wickets for a mere 41 runs in just over eight overs, as DC bowlers exploited a hint grip on the surface to telling effect.</p><p>The passage between overs 6th and 13th also saw RCB batters managing just two fours and a six.</p><p>However, The RCB camp might have harboured some hopes of reaching a much more competitive total through skipper Rajat Patidar, who played a couple of delectable shots.</p><p>But Kuldeep’s skidder ended Patidar's stay (25) as stumper KL Rahul safely held the ball which almost touched the moon and came back.</p><p>Tim David (37 not out, 20b) played a few customary beefy shots in the death overs but it came a wee bit late as RCB's innings ended on a sad note of what could have been.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: The wizardry of spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Vipraj Nigam helped Delhi Capitals stage a stirring comeback to restrict Royal Challengers Bengaluru to a below-par 163 for seven in the IPL match here on Thursday.</p><p>Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep (2/17) and leg-spinner Nigam (2/18) adjusted their lengths beautifully on a pitch that had a touch of sluggishness to drag RCB innings into a marshy pit after the Capitals chose to bowl first.</p><p>But Delhi's decision to field looked utterly obtuse as Royal Challengers went off the blocks like a galloping horse, going past the 50-run mark in just three overs.</p>.IPL 2025 | DC win toss, put RCB to bat first.<p>Central to that charge was opener Phil Salt's turbo-charged innings of 37 off 17 balls.</p><p>The England batter hammered Mitchell Starc for a sequence of 6, 4, 4, 4, 6 to collect 24 runs in the third over.</p><p>However, Salt got run out in a yes-no situation involving Virat Kohli (22, 14b). Kohli and Salt added 61 runs off 24 balls for the opening stand.</p><p>But the introduction of leg-spinner Vipraj Nigam proved a course-altering point.</p><p>Nigam gave away just two runs in the fifth over, and pacer Mohit Sharma followed that up with another tidy few balls in the next over.</p><p>Pressurised by a series of dot balls, Devdutt Padikkal (1) went for a release shot off Mohit, but it lacked any kinetic energy as Axar Patel completed an easy catch at the edge of the circle.</p><p>Kohli, who began to unshackle himself with a six off Nigam over long-on, soon fell to the same bowler while trying to clobber a delivery wide on the off-stump.</p><p>Thereafter, the home side lost the wickets of Jitesh Sharma (4) and Liam Livingstone (3) in quick succession as they slipped to 102 for five in the 13th over, a far cry from the start they had.</p><p>In fact, the hosts lost five wickets for a mere 41 runs in just over eight overs, as DC bowlers exploited a hint grip on the surface to telling effect.</p><p>The passage between overs 6th and 13th also saw RCB batters managing just two fours and a six.</p><p>However, The RCB camp might have harboured some hopes of reaching a much more competitive total through skipper Rajat Patidar, who played a couple of delectable shots.</p><p>But Kuldeep’s skidder ended Patidar's stay (25) as stumper KL Rahul safely held the ball which almost touched the moon and came back.</p><p>Tim David (37 not out, 20b) played a few customary beefy shots in the death overs but it came a wee bit late as RCB's innings ended on a sad note of what could have been.</p>