IPL: Josh Hazlewood, Bhuvneshwar Kumar wreak havoc as RCB blow away DC for 75 in 9-wicket win

NEW DELHI: The eccentricity of the IPL never ceases to astonish the beholder. A venue that witnessed the wild swinging bats wreak carnage two days ago, with 265 being chased down comfortably, saw the swinging new white ball annihilate a batting lineup on Monday evening. In a matter of four overs, Royal Challengers Bengaluru seamers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Josh Hazlewood turned the Delhi Capitals dugout into a crime scene where six batters sat buried in their seats with wounded self-belief and the scoreboard reading 8/6. Rub your eyes and read again.

Capitals were going at a rate of nearly a-run-a-wicket before they finished the Powerplay at 13/6. Call it the worst batting performance in the Powerplay or the best spell of fast bowling in a Powerplay, those six overs served as a staunch reminder of how cricket can be a great leveller.

RCB chasing the 76-run target down in just 6.3 overs with one wicket down was also a commentary on the superior skills of Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood and the subpar batting acumen of the Capitals batters. The partisan Delhi crowd turned up to watch Virat Kohli bat and they went home chanting his name as he finished the game, imperiously slapping T Natarajan over the mid-wicket boundary.

But the night will be remembered for Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood making a telling statement with figures of 3/5 and 4/12. Here were two seasoned and proud international bowlers standing at the top of their runups like bloodhounds on the same field that had reduced bowlers to mere bowling machines on Saturday afternoon. Each time they ran in, it felt like the battle was personal. Each dismissal was celebrated like it was an answer to all the helpless days the bowlers endure in the IPL thanks to the benign surfaces, bigger bats, short boundaries and the Impact Player rule.

The pitch didn’t generate pace and bounce of WACA in Perth and neither did the conditions offer exaggerated movement like an early-summer English track. All Bhuvneshwar and Hazlewood needed was a hint of swing in the air and comparatively more zip off the pitch to expose the technical inadequacies of a batting lineup that has thrived largely on flatter decks.

Much has been said of the power-hitting on display this IPL. A whiff of help from the conditions and the RCB duo got rolling from the moment KL Rahul decided to expose debutant Sahil Parakh to take the first ball of the match against Bhuvneshwar. The Capitals batters fluttered in the middle like frightened chickens, unaware of what the ball was doing. The RCB fielders converged on the DC batters from a heavily-manned slip cordon, a rarity in T20 cricket, to keep them teetering on the mat.