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Starc, Gayle help Bangalore crush Delhi by 10 wickets

April 26, 2015 23:07 IST

Royal Challengers Bangalore opener Chris Gayle hits out. Photograph: BCCI

A fiery spell of fast bowling from Mitchell Starc and Varun Aaron followed by Chris Gayle's quickfire half-century helped Royal Challengers Bangalore crush Delhi Daredevils by a convincing 10-wicket victory in the Indian Premier League match at the Feroz Shah Kotla, in New Delhi, on Sunday.

- Scorecard

Starc and Varun took five wickets between them to bundle out Delhi Daredevils for a paltry 95 in 18.2 overs.

In reply, Gayle hammered an unbeaten 62 not out from 40 balls, with the help of six fours and four sixes, while Virat Kohli made 35 not out as Bangalore cruised to 99 for no loss in 10.3 overs to win with 57 deliveries to spare.

Starc (3/20) and Aaron (2/24) led a spending bowling effort after Bangalore had elected to bowl.

Royal Challengers Bangalore pacer Mitchell Starc celebrates the wicket of Shreyas Iyer. Photograph: BCCI

It turned out to be a one-sided affair right from the start as Starc started with the wicket of Shreyas Iyer in the first over of the match, trapping leg before wicket with a quick yorker.

Captain J P Duminy walked in next and alongside Mayank Agarwal, he was up against serious pace from both ends with Aaron also steaming in. However, Aaron conceded 13 runs in his second over to release a bit of pressure.

Just when it looked Daredevils' innings was getting some momentum, RCB broke the backbone of Daredevils by taking three quick wickets to reduce the hosts to 39 for four in 6.3 overs.

All their experienced batsmen -- Duminy(13), Yuvraj Singh (2) and Angelo Mathews (0) -- were gone in a space of seven balls.

After David Wiese had Duminy caught behind, Aaron came back to remove Yuvraj and Mathews off successive balls to put the visitors in control.

Varun Aaron (left) celebrates with Virat Kohli after taking the wicket of Angelo Mathews. Photograph: BCCI

Yuvraj poked at one outside the off-stump which bounced a bit more than expected to take the edge before Mathews looped a simple catch to AB de Villliers at midwicket.

It was another failure for Rs 16 crore buy Yuvraj, who has so far scored 124 runs in seven innings at 17.71.

By the first time-out, the scoreboard had a sorry look to it with the home team crawling to 45 for four in nine overs.

For RCB, wrecker-in-chief Aaron proved his worth with a spirited spell after he was brought back into the side in place of injured leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal.

Kohli chose to go with an extra seamer in the absence of Chahal and the move worked.

It soon became 72 for six after left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla had Agarwal (27) stumped in a wicket maiden and in the next over, Wiese trapped Nathan Coulter-Nile in front of the stumps.

From there on, it all went downhill for Daredevils as Starc added two more wickets to his tally by sending back Amit Mishra and Shahbaz Nadeem with perfectly placed off-stump yorkers.

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