RCB flatten Delhi in 6.3 overs after Hazlewood

On April 28, the evening at the Arun Jaitley Stadium never truly belonged to the batters — it belonged to the storm. Not just the one that swept across Delhi mid-game, but the far more destructive one unleashed earlier by Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

Before dust clouds swallowed the skyline, the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) had already blown Delhi Capitals (DC) away.

In a breathtaking display of seam bowling, Hazlewood (4 wickets) and Bhuvneshwar (3 wickets) tore through Delhi’s top order, bundling them out for a paltry 75 in 16.3 overs — one of the lowest totals in IPL history, and Delhi’s third lowest ever.

Just two days after piling up 264 in a high-scoring thriller, Delhi’s batting collapsed into disbelief. This time, the runs never came. The resistance never built. The innings barely began.

RCB needed only 6.3 overs to chase down 77.

Virat Kohli ensured the home crowd still had something to cheer, lighting up the chase with two towering sixes—one sealing a crushing nine-wicket win. Jacob Bethell had already set the tone with a rapid 20 off 10 balls, making the outcome feel inevitable from the outset.

Powerplay chaos breaks Delhi

The collapse was immediate and brutal.

Delhi stumbled to 13 for 6 in the powerplay—the lowest such score in IPL history—teetering dangerously close to the all-time record for the lowest total. That ignominy was narrowly avoided thanks to Abhishek Porel, whose gritty 30 off 33 balls stood out in an otherwise dismal card.

From the stands, a packed Kotla crowd found its own way to cope. As wickets fell in a relentless procession, chants of “Kohli, Kohli” echoed around the stadium—a strange but telling soundtrack to the carnage.

When 264 becomes 75

The transformation from a 250-plus run-fest just 48 hours earlier to this collapse raised inevitable questions.

The answer lay partly in the pitch—drier, offering movement—and largely in the mastery of Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar. Their precision, control, and ability to exploit swing proved far too much for a Delhi side that seemed mentally stuck in a batting shootout.

There was also a sense of overcorrection. Still reeling from conceding 265 in their previous outing, Delhi’s batters appeared desperate to attack—often recklessly.

Shot selection faltered. Composure vanished.

What followed was inevitable.

Bhuvneshwar surprised, but ruthless

Even Bhuvneshwar admitted the conditions caught him off guard.

“I was definitely surprised, especially given how the wicket played in the last match with 250 plus in both innings. To see the ball swing away like that was unexpected,” he said during the innings break. “We knew we had to attack the stumps and go for wickets.”

He did exactly that—moving the ball both ways, drawing edges, and dismantling the middle order with clinical ease.

Hazelwood leads the demolition

The tone was set on the very first ball.

Debutant Sahil Parikh was greeted with a searing inswinging yorker that crashed into the stumps—an introduction as harsh as it was unforgettable.

Hazlewood took over from there.

KL Rahul, fresh off a big knock days earlier, fell to a sharp bouncer. Sameer Rizvi edged his first ball. Nitish Rana followed soon after, undone by another steep lifter.

At one stage, Hazlewood stood on a hat-trick. By the end of the fourth over, the scoreboard read a staggering 9 for 6.

Delhi were already out of the contest.

Brief resistance, then inevitability

Abhishek Porel and David Miller attempted to stitch together some resistance, adding 35 runs amid a brief dust storm interruption that halted play for five minutes.

But even nature’s pause could not alter the script.

Miller fell to a loose stroke. Spin tightened the screws—Krunal Pandya struck, Suyash Sharma delivered a miserly spell of 1 for 7 in four overs, including 20 dot balls.

And fittingly, it ended where it began—with a yorker.

Hazlewood returned to shatter Porel’s stumps, closing Delhi’s innings with the same ruthless precision that had defined its beginning.

Standings shift

The defeat marks Delhi Capitals’ third consecutive loss, dropping them to seventh in the standings.

RCB, meanwhile, continue their surge. With 12 points from eight matches, they sit second — just one point behind table-toppers Punjab Kings, and firmly in control of their campaign.

On a night shaped by swing, speed, and a swirling dust storm, one thing was unmistakably clear: RCB didn’t just win—they overwhelmed.