It came to DC needing 15 off the final over bowled by Romario Shepherd, who was bowling his first of the game. Miller had missed out on the first ball – a hittable delivery on leg stump that cost RCB just one run – and Tristan Stubbs also managed only a single next ball, leaving DC needing 13 off four balls. Miller completed his redemption arc with 6, 6, 4 off the next three balls to stun the Chinnaswamy into silence.

Virat Kohli and Phil Salt gave RCB a swift start on a slower-than-usual Chinnaswamy pitch after they were asked to bat first. Kohli nicked the second ball he faced from Auqib Nabi, between slip and short third, and Mukesh also found swing in his opening over. But nothing could stop Kohli from shimming out of his crease twice and pumping Mukesh for a pair of fours over cover. However, when he tried to treat Lungi Ngidi in a similar way in the last over of the powerplay, the seamer shifted his line wider of off and had Kohli caught at sweeper cover, the only man on the boundary on the off side, for 19 off 13 balls.

In comparison, Salt had managed just 13 off his first 13 balls, but turned up the tempo when he took Nabi for 4, 6, 4 in the fifth over. When he cracked Kuldeep Yadav over wide long-off for six, he brought up his half-century off 30 balls. Salt hit Kuldeep for another six before the left-arm wristspinner pushed one away from Salt’s swinging arc and had the batter holing out to wide long-off this time for 63 off 38 balls. The slowness in the surface also played a part in Salt’s dismissal.

Kuldeep and his captain Axar Patel combined to slow RCB down even further. Axar, who had delayed his introduction into the attack until the tenth over, possibly because of the presence of Devdutt Padikkal, managed to have the left-hand batter caught at long-on, though he had erred too full.

Tim David rose above the conditions and ran away to 26 off 15 balls. His drilled six off Ngidi in the 12th over had Kohli off his seat in the dressing room and the Chinnaswamy erupting in joy. Axar, though, played killjoy when he drew an outside edge from David that landed into the hands of short third. David had denied Jitesh Sharma, who was struggling at the other end, strike and turned down a single off the previous ball, but Axar shifted his line wide of off and bested David with turn.

Rajat Patidar had already been dismissed by Mukesh Kumar for 8 off four balls and Shepherd couldn’t fire either, Kuldeep trapping the West Indian allrounder lbw for 1. The pressure piled on RCB as they went 25 balls without a boundary until Jitesh found it in the 18th over. It should have been a catch at short third, but the ball evaded Mukesh’s outstretched left hand and snuck away to the deep-third boundary. Mukesh, who had landed face-first into the ground, left the field in discomfort, having completed his quota of four overs.

RCB didn’t score a boundary in their last two overs and only scored two in their last six overs. At the innings break, former RCB captain Faf du Plessis reckoned that the hosts were ten runs short.

The first two overs from Bhuvneshwar Kumar in RCB’s defence was a passage of play straight out of Test-match cricket. With two slips in place, Bhuvneshwar got the new ball to swing both ways and tore through DC’s top order.

He produced the opening breakthrough when he pinged Nissanka’s pad with a big inswinger in his first over. He then went bang bang in his second to dismiss Karun Nair and Sameer Rizvi. DC had brought Nair at No. 3 at his domestic home ground at the expense of a finisher in Ashutosh Sharma, but an outswinger from Bhuvneshwar had Nair carving a catch to deep third for a run-a-ball 5.

Three balls later, Bhuvneshwar had Rizvi caught behind with another outswinger. Jitesh dived full length to his right and pulled off a one-handed screamer, reducing DC to 18 for 3 inside three overs.

KL Rahul and Stubbs brought DC back into the contest with contrasting half-centuries. By the end of the powerplay, DC were 50 for 3, with Rahul contributing 31 off 18 balls. He played some glorious shots, including a flicked six over square leg off an off-stump ball on a Test-match length from Josh Hazlewood.

Rahul scored 22 off ten balls from Hazlewood, extending his T20 tally against him to 135 off 78 balls. Nobody has a better head-to-head record against Hazlewood in T20s.

Rahul also lined up wristspinner Syuash Sharma, but when he tried to attack Krunal Pandya, the left-arm spinner fired in a 103kph dart and had an advancing Rahul holing out for 57 off 34 balls in the 11th over.

Stubbs was on 18 off 17 balls by the time Rahul was dismissed. He picked up the pace in the 13th over, when he hit Rasikh Salam for a pair of fours, including one down the ground off a slower variation. Without taking too many risks, Stubbs added 47 for the fifth wicket with Axar before the latter retired hurt on 26 off 19 balls.

DC required 42 off 25 balls. Hazlewood and Bhuvneshwar returned and ramped up the pressure on DC with their wide yorkers and reverse-swinging stump yorkers.

Stubbs briefly diffused the tension in the 18th over when he latched onto a slower bouncer from Bhuvneshwar and launched it over square leg for six. It was Stubbs’ first six off the 40th ball he faced and first boundary for DC after four overs.

Despite that six, Bhuvneshwar conceded only 12 off the over, and Rasikh followed it up with a tight penultimate over, giving away ten runs.

With 14 to defend off the last over, Patidar called up Shepherd, who got away with his first ball when he missed his length. Stubbs then pinched another single off the next ball. Shepherd then cracked under pressure and kept missing the yorker as Miller crashed him for 6, 6, 4.

The first six came off a full toss, which was swatted into the second tier over midwicket. Shepherd then served up a wide half-volley and Miller biffed him over extra-cover for six more. On the next ball, Miller sealed the win with a flicked four to the midwicket fence off a full toss.

Brief scores:
Delhi Capitals 179 for 4 in 19.5 overs (Tristan Stubbs 60*, KL Rahul 57, Axar Patel 26, David Miller 22*; Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3-26, Krunal Pandya 1-24, ) beat Royal Challengers Bengaluru 175 for 8 in 20 overs (Phil Salt 63, Virat Kohli 19, Devudutt Padikkal 18, Tim David 26, Jitesh Sharma 14, Krunal Pandya 12; Mukesh Kumar 1-32, Lungi Ngindi 2-39, Axar Patel  2-18, Kuldeep Yadav 2-32) by six wickets

[Cricinfo]

There was only one brief period of KKR dominance, when they scored 52 in three overs (12th to 14th) as Cameron Green went on a boundary-hitting spree. Green’s 55-ball 79, however, was a strange and ultimately frustrating innings: he struggled for fluency early on, scoring 27 off his first 29 balls, and finished with a whimper, scoring just four off his last 11, a period in which KKR collapsed around him while starving him of strike: they went from 147 for 4 in the 15th over to 180 all out.

The conditions weren’t the flattest – Mohammed Siraj and Kagiso Rabada swung the new ball right through the powerplay, and all of GT’s quicks found a bit of seam movement – but this was, nonetheless, a below-par total.

This set up a chase made for GT’s top order. Gill picked off the boundaries surgically in the powerplay – he scored 34 off 15 in that phase – and slowed down when the field spread. He slowed down dramatically, in fact – he only scored 52 off 35 outside the powerplay – but he could afford to because GT had knocked 71 runs off their target in the first six overs, with B Sai Sudharsan and Jos Buttler contributing quick cameos.

The rest of the chase showed the question marks that still hang over this GT line-up – they continued to huff and puff even when the required rate was in the region of a-run-a-ball, and eventually got home with just two balls remaining – and KKR would have ended the match wishing they had scored 20 runs more.