After their first home defeat in IPL 2026, Royal Challengers Bengaluru captain Rajat Patidar still remained positive about his team’s performance and highlighted that it is a long tournament and they will have more chances to bounce back.

Royal Challengers Bengaluru and Delhi Capitals faced off in a highly anticipated contest, as the Capitals looked for their third win in the competition. Having started their IPL 2026 campaign on a promising note, they faced two losses after two wins early on. A win for the Capitals would mean they could bounce back to seal fourth place in the points table.

RCB, on the other hand, have continued their promising form from 2025 onwards, and this time, captain Rajat Patidar has been leading from the front. Currently placed in the second position before the match began, RCB might not fall immediately even if they lose the game, but it would surely be their first setback at their home stadium this season; Therefore, the Patidar-led team would look to continue their winning streak at home.

RCB’s fast pacers face hurdle as DC bowlers master the death

RCB’s batsmen have been the best performers and the most consistent so far in this edition of the competition. The openers have delivered on alternate occasions, while the middle order has backed them up wonderfully. Especially captain Rajat Patidar has set an example.

However, despite a promising start from Phil Salt in this game too, RCB batsmen struggled to keep the runs flowing after he was dismissed from a wide delivery by Kuldeep Yadav, which missed Tristan Stubbs at long-off.

Patidar, Tim David, Jitesh Sharma and Romario Shepherd, all the big batsmen, were lost as the DC players controlled the death. Ngidi bowled some surprisingly slower balls as Natarajan continued his impressive spell at the death, as he hammered six yorkers in one over.

KL Rahul lights up Chinnaswamy, as Stubbs takes DC across the line

Coming into the DC innings, they got off to a mixed start with the in-form Pathum Nissanka being dismissed early by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. RCB got on top of them and dismissed Karun Nair and Sameer Rizvi in ​​their next over.

However, Karnataka’s local boy KL Rahul was at the crease and helped Tristan Stubbs with the time he needed to establish himself. Rahul took the attack while Stubbs batted deep. Finally, after Rahul’s dismissal after his half-century, Stubbs finished with an unbeaten 60.

David Miller was the hero once again, chasing 13 off the last four balls of the innings. He bowled the ball all over the field, scored 16 off just 3 balls and took Delhi home with those two points.

“We will rectify them.” – Rajat Patidar admits his mistakes, agrees to introspect and rectify them.

Rajat Patidar claimed that the team, despite a good start, could not continue scoring runs in the latter part of their innings. “That was very close, but I feel like we were 15-20 runs short. The way we started initially, especially Virat bhai and Salt, they gave a good start, but from there, after 12-13 overs, we lost wickets in a couple of overs and that put us in the backseat,” opined Rajat Patidar.

“I think the first innings was a little tacky, I would say. But I think the way we stretched in the last over, I think it’s a positive sign for us. But I think I was just arguing with the bowlers to be clear in whatever they do.”

“It is a long tournament, but I think we will go back and examine where we put the mistakes and rectify them,” Rajat Patidar added.

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