Delhi Capitals were 8 for 6. Not 80. Eight.
Six wickets fell inside the first four overs, on their own ground, in front of their own crowd. Royal Challengers Bengaluru finished the job so completely that they won with 81 balls still unused the second-most dominant chase, by balls remaining, in IPL history.
This Delhi Capitals Cricket vs Royal Challengers Cricket match scorecard covers the full 39th Match of IPL 2026 at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. RCB won by 9 wickets, but the real story is how completely Delhi Capitals’ innings fell apart before it had barely begun.
Match in 30 Seconds
| Detail | Match information |
|---|---|
| Match | Delhi Capitals vs Royal Challengers Bengaluru, 39th Match |
| Tournament | Indian Premier League 2026 (men’s) |
| Venue | Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi |
| Date | 27 April 2026 |
| Toss | RCB won the toss and elected to field |
| Delhi Capitals score | 75 all out in 16.3 overs |
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru score | 77/1 in 6.3 overs |
| Result | Royal Challengers Bengaluru won by 9 wickets |
| Player of the Match | Josh Hazlewood — 4/12 |
The one-line story: Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar reduced Delhi Capitals to 8/6 inside four overs, and RCB completed the chase so quickly that Virat Kohli reached 9,000 IPL runs a first for any batter before the match was even half over.
Men’s IPL vs Women’s WPL: a critical guardrail. This article covers the men’s IPL 2026 match between Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bengaluru. It is not the WPL 2026 Final between RCB Women and Delhi Capitals Women, a completely separate tournament in which RCB Women chased down 203 to win their first-ever WPL title, with Sophie Devine named Player of the Tournament. If you’re searching for that match, you’ll need a different scorecard entirely.
Delhi Capitals Cricket vs Royal Challengers Cricket Match Scorecard
Delhi Capitals innings: 75 all out in 16.3 overs
| Batter | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | Dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sahil Parakh | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | b Bhuvneshwar |
| KL Rahul (wk) | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 | c Jitesh b Hazlewood |
| Nitish Rana | 1 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 11.11 | c Padikkal b Hazlewood |
| Sameer Rizvi | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | c Jitesh b Hazlewood |
| Tristan Stubbs | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 166.67 | c Padikkal b Bhuvneshwar |
| Axar Patel (c) | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | c Jitesh b Bhuvneshwar |
| Abishek Porel | 30 | 33 | 3 | 0 | 90.91 | b Hazlewood |
| David Miller | 19 | 18 | 3 | 0 | 105.56 | c Jitesh b Rasikh Salam |
| Kyle Jamieson | 12 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 92.31 | lbw b Krunal Pandya |
| Kuldeep Yadav | 3 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 27.27 | b Suyash Sharma |
| Dushmantha Chameera | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 | not out |
| Extras | 4 | — | — | — | — | 4 wides |
| Total | 75/10 | 16.3 overs |
Fall of wickets: 0/1 (0.2), 2/2 (1.1), 2/3 (1.2), 7/4 (2.1), 7/5 (2.4), 8/6 (3.5), 43/7 (8.6), 62/8 (12.3), 71/9 (15.3), 75/10 (16.3).
RCB bowling figures
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bhuvneshwar Kumar | 3 | 5 | 3 | 1.66 |
| Josh Hazlewood | 3.3 | 12 | 4 | 3.42 |
| Rasikh Salam | 2 | 21 | 1 | 10.50 |
| Romario Shepherd | 2 | 21 | 0 | 10.50 |
| Suyash Sharma | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1.75 |
| Krunal Pandya | 2 | 9 | 1 | 4.50 |
Royal Challengers Bengaluru innings: 77/1 in 6.3 overs
| Batter | Runs | Balls | 4s | 6s | Strike rate | Dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacob Bethell | 20 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 181.82 | c Natarajan b Jamieson |
| Virat Kohli | 23* | 15 | 1 | 2 | 153.33 | not out |
| Devdutt Padikkal | 34* | 13 | 3 | 3 | 261.54 | not out |
| Extras | 0 | — | — | — | — | — |
| Total | 77/1 | 6.3 overs |
Fall of wickets: 26/1 (Jacob Bethell, 2.5).
DC bowling figures
| Bowler | Overs | Runs | Wickets | Economy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Jamieson | 3 | 42 | 1 | 14.00 |
| Dushmantha Chameera | 2 | 18 | 0 | 9.00 |
| Axar Patel | 1 | 5 | 0 | 5.00 |
| T Natarajan | 0.3 | 12 | 0 | 24.00 |
Highlights and Key Moments
1. The 8/6 collapse, minute by minute
Delhi Capitals lost their first wicket in the second over. By the end of the fourth, they had lost six. Sahil Parakh was bowled for a duck. KL Rahul, Nitish Rana, and Sameer Rizvi followed in quick succession. Tristan Stubbs and Axar Patel fell without troubling the scorers. Six wickets, eight runs, four overs.
What most people miss: this wasn’t a difficult, demon-pitch collapse. Josh Hazlewood himself described the surface afterward as “skidding on quickly from short of a length” before it flattened out later meaning the conditions favoured the bowlers for exactly six overs, and RCB’s attack read that window perfectly while DC’s top order didn’t adjust.
2. Porel and Miller’s rearguard action
After the carnage, Abishek Porel and David Miller added 35 runs together, with Porel eventually top-scoring on 30 off 33 and Miller contributing 19 off 18. It didn’t change the result, but it prevented DC’s innings from being a complete embarrassment.
Counterintuitive point: a 35-run partnership in the middle of an innings usually goes unnoticed. Here, it was the difference between DC’s lowest-ever total and a merely very bad one sometimes the most valuable partnership in a match is the one that simply limits the damage, not the one that wins it.
3. Kohli’s 9,000-run milestone
During RCB’s brief chase, Virat Kohli became the first batter in IPL history to reach 9,000 runs in the competition, reaching the landmark with a six off T Natarajan.
Bold opinion: the fact that this milestone arrived during a 6.3-over chase, almost as an afterthought to the main story of DC’s collapse, says something about how routine excellence has become for Kohli in this format. A record that would headline most matches was, in this one, a footnote.
4. The record chase: 81 balls remaining
RCB completed the chase with 81 balls unused the second-most dominant chase by balls remaining in IPL history, behind only Mumbai Indians’ 87-ball win over Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008.
This is where things go wrong for a team defending a tiny total: once DC’s total fell to 75, there was no version of the match where their bowlers could realistically defend it. Kyle Jamieson conceded 42 runs in three overs trying to find something, anything, that could slow RCB down, but 75 simply doesn’t give a bowling attack room to create genuine pressure.
Player Performance Breakdown
Josh Hazlewood: 4/12, Player of the Match
Hazlewood’s spell wasn’t about pace. It was about a single repeatable plan: straight lines in the corridor, forcing batters to play down the ground, backed by a hard short ball once the surface allowed bounce. Four wickets, twelve runs, and a Player-of-the-Match award effectively decided inside the first six overs of the match.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar: the enforcer
An economy of 1.66 in a T20 innings is not a normal outcome.
Bhuvneshwar’s figures matter as much as Hazlewood’s for one specific reason: he set the tone with the very first over, and every DC batter walked in already a step behind.
Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli a chase without drama
Padikkal’s unbeaten 34 off 13 and Kohli’s unbeaten 23 off 15 closed out the match with total control. Neither batter needed to take any real risk the match had already been won by the bowlers.
Practical lesson for reading a lopsided chase: when a chase looks this comfortable, the batting performance should be read as a formality, not an achievement. The actual story of this match belongs entirely to the bowling attack.
Abishek Porel and David Miller: DC’s only resistance
Porel’s 30 off 33 and Miller’s 19 off 18 were the only two scores of note in DC’s innings. Together they accounted for nearly two-thirds of the team’s total.
Common mistake in analysis: dismissing a below-par individual score of 30 as unremarkable. In the context of a team total of 75, Porel’s innings represented 40% of everything DC managed all match.
Analysis: What Went Wrong for Delhi Capitals
A toss-independent collapse
What people think: DC lost the toss and got a bad batting surface.
Reality: RCB batted second on the same pitch and scored 77 in 6.3 overs at a run rate above 12. The surface was never the problem DC’s shot selection in the first four overs was.
The common mistake DC’s top order made
DC’s captain Axar Patel admitted after the match that “if our openers or one of the top-order batters had negotiated those first couple of overs better, it could have made a difference.” That’s a captain conceding a strategic failure, not blaming conditions.
Practical lesson for batting orders facing a fresh, swinging new ball: the correct approach against Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood in helpful conditions was survival, not aggression. DC’s top four combined for 2 runs off 15 balls, trying to attack from ball one against exactly the wrong bowling matchup.
What this result meant for the IPL 2026 table
The defeat was Delhi Capitals’ third straight loss at the time, and the scale of a 9-wicket defeat is difficult to recover from in net run rate terms. RCB, meanwhile, consolidated a position that would eventually carry them to a top-two finish and, ultimately, back-to-back titles.
Bold opinion: a side with Axar Patel, KL Rahul, and Tristan Stubbs shouldn’t be reduced to 8/6 by swing bowling in home conditions. That collapse reflects a tactical and temperament issue more than a talent gap and it’s exactly the kind of pattern that costs a team a playoff spot over a full season.
Records, Season Context and Format Guardrail
Records set in this match
| Record | Detail |
|---|---|
| Most balls remaining in a successful IPL chase (2nd all-time) | RCB won with 81 balls to spare, behind only Mumbai Indians’ 87-ball win over Kolkata Knight Riders in 2008 |
| First batter to 9,000 IPL runs | Virat Kohli, reached with a six off T Natarajan |
| DC’s lowest powerplay score of the season | 8/6 inside the first six overs |
Format and fixture guardrail
| Fixture | Correct context |
|---|---|
| DC vs RCB, 39th Match, IPL 2026 (this article) | Men’s IPL league match — this article’s core scorecard |
| RCB vs DC, 26th Match, IPL 2026 | An earlier meeting between the same two men’s teams in the same season |
| DC vs RCB, 46th Match, IPL 2025 | A completely different men’s IPL season |
| RCB vs DC, WPL 2026 Final | A separate Women’s Premier League final — different competition, different gender category, different players entirely |
For example, in the WPL 2026 Final, RCB Women beat Delhi Capitals Women by 6 wickets, chasing down 203 the first time any team had successfully chased 200-plus in an IPL or WPL final. Sophie Devine was named MVP of the tournament, and Georgia Voll’s innings was central to the chase. These figures belong entirely to a different tournament and must never be presented as part of this men’s IPL scorecard.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ans. Royal Challengers Bengaluru won by 9 wickets. DC were bowled out for 75, and RCB chased it down at 77/1 in just 6.3 overs at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi.
Ans. Delhi Capitals were bowled out for 75 in 16.3 overs, with Abishek Porel’s 30 the top score. Royal Challengers Bengaluru chased it down at 77/1 in 6.3 overs, with Devdutt Padikkal unbeaten on 34 and Virat Kohli unbeaten on 23.
Ans. Josh Hazlewood was Player of the Match for his figures of 4/12 in 3.3 overs.
Ans. New-ball swing and seam movement from Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood in the first four overs, combined with aggressive shot selection from Delhi Capitals’ top order, produced the collapse — not a difficult batting surface, since RCB scored freely on the same pitch.
Ans. This article covers the men’s IPL 2026 match. It is not the WPL 2026 Final, a separate women’s tournament final in which RCB Women beat Delhi Capitals Women by 6 wickets, chasing down 203.
