NEW DELHI: Faf du Plessis, the captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), acknowledged that the Delhi Capitals (DC) batters put pressure on his spinners, which resulted in a few errors during the IPL 2023 encounter at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

With 20 balls remaining, DC opener and wicket-keeper Phil Salt scored a match-winning 87 runs to assist his club defeat RCB by seven wickets. Faf du Plessis noted that the Delhi Capitals' powerplay collapse of the 182-run chase and the second innings' contribution of dew to the outcome.

"I believed we were performing fairly well. We considered 185 to be an excellent result. However, there was some dew in the second innings. But their batters deserve praise; they performed admirably. In a post-game presentation, du Plessis stated that some errors were caused by the pressure their batters placed on the spinners.

"We underutilised our innings. We thought 185 was a par score at roughly 12 overs. Obviously, you'd prefer to have one of those significant overs to bring your total up to 200, which is a respectable score. After the powerplay, however, they forced our bowlers to take a slight step back," du Plessis continued.

Glenn Maxwell might enter at third thanks to the 82-run opening stand, according to Du Plessis. Maxwell was fired by Mitchell Marsh for being a "golden duck," hence the strategy failed. Mahipal Lomror scored a crucial fifty to assist RCB in reaching a respectable total of 181/4.

"We believed that our foundation was strong enough for Maxi to enter at number three. Very happy to see Lomror enter at No. 5 and perform superbly. For him, that was a very good thing. Just pray that someone steps up and scores a lot of runs at No. 3. With the speed they were moving, they essentially broke the back of the pursuit in the first six, according to du Plessis.

When David Warner entered the game, chasing 182, he got right to work, launching two fours off Siraj in the opening over of the innings. Phil Salt also adopted an aggressive approach, scoring fours against Josh Hazlewood and Glenn Maxwell, respectively.

With a strong six over a deep square leg, Warner introduced Wanindu Hasaranga to the attack. To get 12 runs off the over, he smacked another four through the same area. As he batted aggressively against Mohd. Siraj, Salt blasted two straight sixes and a four. The 60-run stand was finally broken by Hazlewood, who outwitted Warner (22 off 14) with a slower pitch and caught him at midoff. Mitchell Marsh got the ball rolling right away, slamming a six and a four off Hazlewood to boost DC to 70/1 at the conclusion of the Powerplay.

After scoring 16 runs off the ninth over of Karn Sharma's bowling, Salt kept the scoreboard moving and reached his second IPL fifty, off just 28 balls, and DC's 100. The partnership reached 59 runs when Kohli introduced Harshal Patel, who had taken Kedar Jadhav's place as the Impact Player in the eighth over. Harshal Patel then broke the partnership by having Marsh (26 off 17) caught at deep square leg off a slower delivery, ending the stand.

Salt and Rilee Rossouw attacked Harshal when 56 runs were needed off of 48, slamming three sixes and a four to score 24 runs off the over and down the required run rate to under five. It was a shift in momentum that put DC squarely in control.

Salt reduced the equation to 23 needed off 36 by smashing one over deep mid-wicket off Hasaranga. Salt continued to deliver in sixes. With 11 needed off of 28 balls, Salt's incredible 87-run knock was finally over when he pulled one off Karn Sharma onto the stumps. Axar appeared and hit the opening ball for six. DC completed the chase with 20 balls remaining and seven wickets in hand thanks to a six by Rossouw over deep midwicket.