With AB de Villiers smashing that six off Trent Boult in the final delivery of the penultimate over of the match, all hopes ended for struggling Delhi Daredevils in the eleventh edition of the Indian Premier League.
Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers' century partnership took the visitors past the target of 182 runs set by Delhi at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi to keep playoffs hope alive for Bangalore. On the contrary, Delhi officially became the first team to be eliminated from the race to the knockout stage for the sixth successive time.
Delhi were put into bat and after the initial falter, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer steadied the innings with a crucial 86-run partnership with most of the boundaries racked up by the left-hander. Pant went on to score his seventh IPL fifty and was ably supported by young Abhishek Sharma's blistering 46* as Delhi amassed a total of 181 runs at the loss of four wickets.
In reply, Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers stitched a match-winning partnership of 118 runs to steer RCB past the tricky total and keep their playoffs hope alive.
Heading into the chance Delhi had a very bleak possibility of making it to the knockout phase, especially after Rajasthan Royals' win over Chennai Super Kings on Friday and their poor net run rate.
This was for the sixth consecutive season that Delhi didn't make it to the playoffs. They started off poor this season, before Gautam Gambhir stepped down from captaincy responsibility. Delhi found inspiration in Iyer as they bagged two wins in their next three games. But things fell back on the same track for the Daredevils and the little rejuvenation midway lost its way once again.
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