Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) captain Rajat Patidar won the toss at the Arun Jaitley Stadium tonight and decided to put Delhi Capitals (DC) in to bat. Patidar said conditions at night suit his bowling unit and he wanted to use the dew to RCB’s advantage in the second innings. The decision makes a lot of sense given how the Arun Jaitley pitch has been playing this season. With Josh Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar Kumar leading the attack, RCB will look to make early inroads and then chase whatever DC set.
Delhi Capitals come into this game under real pressure. They have managed only three wins from seven matches and are sitting sixth on the points table. Their last game on April 25 against Punjab Kings was one of the most extraordinary matches of this IPL season. DC posted a massive 264 for 2, with KL Rahul smashing an unbeaten 152 off just 67 balls, the highest score by an Indian batter in IPL history. Nitish Rana contributed a blazing 91 off 44 balls. Despite that massive total, PBKS chased it down in 18.5 overs, winning by 6 wickets, powered by a 116-run powerplay opening stand from Prabhsimran Singh and Priyansh Arya. Lungi Ngidi suffered a concussion during that game and is expected to miss today. DC’s bowling has been a real concern all season.
Royal Challengers Bengaluru, on the other hand, are flying. They have won five out of seven games and moved up to second on the points table. In their last match on April 24 against Gujarat Titans, RCB chased down 206 with ease, winning by 5 wickets with 7 balls to spare. Virat Kohli was the star of the show, scoring 81 off 44 balls in a brilliant knock that anchored the chase. He put on a 115-run stand with Devdutt Padikkal (55 off 27) to take the game away from GT. RCB head into tonight full of confidence and with their batting firing on all cylinders. This is also the reverse fixture the last time these two teams met, DC beat RCB by 6 wickets at Chinnaswamy, and RCB will be looking for revenge tonight.
Pitch report
The Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi is one of the flattest batting surfaces in the IPL this season. Just two days ago, a record-breaking 529 runs were scored across two innings here in the DC vs PBKS match. The outfield is quick, the boundaries are not too large, and once the ball gets old, it sits up nicely for the batters. Pacers can extract some swing early with the new ball, but after the first six overs it becomes very hard to contain aggressive batters on this surface. Teams looking to bowl first at this ground prefer to use the dew in the second innings to their advantage. As the evening goes on, the pitch gets under the lights and batting becomes even easier. The average first innings score here in IPL 2026 is around 185 to 190 runs, though as the PBKS game showed, totals of 200-plus are very much on the cards. Expect another high-scoring game tonight.
DC playing XI
Sahil Parakh, KL Rahul(w), Nitish Rana, Sameer Rizvi, Tristan Stubbs, David Miller, Axar Patel(c), Dushmantha Chameera, Kyle Jamieson, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan
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RCB playing XI
Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood, Suyash Sharma, Rasikh Salam Dar
Last match results
DC vs PBKS (April 25, M35): DC scored a record 264 for 2. KL Rahul smashed 152* off 67 balls, the highest score ever by an Indian in the IPL. Nitish Rana hit 91 off 44. Despite that, PBKS chased it down in 18.5 overs with 6 wickets in hand. Prabhsimran Singh scored 76 off 26 balls and Shreyas Iyer finished it with 71* off 36. DC lost despite posting their highest-ever IPL total.
RCB vs GT (April 24, M34): GT posted 205 for 3. Sai Sudharsan scored a classy 100 off 58 balls. RCB chased it down in 18.5 overs, winning by 5 wickets. Virat Kohli scored 81 off 44 balls and Devdutt Padikkal hit 55 off 27. Kohli and Padikkal added 115 runs together. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 1 for 31 with the ball.
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Also Read: IPL Impact Player Rule Explained: How It Works & What’s New In 2026
