IPL 2020: Twitter erupts as both RCB and DC qualify for the playoffs

Ajinkya Rahane hit his first fifty of the season and Shikhar Dhawan returned to form to help the Delhi Capitals secure a place in Qualifier 1 of the IPL 2020 playoffs. Shreyas Iyer's side beat the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets in Match 55 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

The win pits DC against defending champions Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 on November 5, while RCB will play either KKR or SRH in the Eliminator the following night.

After Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to field first, RCB couldn’t quite get off to a flowing start as Josh Philippe perished for a scratchy 12 off 17 balls. 20-year-old Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli then stitched 57 runs for the second wicket to help the Bangalore-based side to 82 for 2 in the 13th over.

Ravichandran Ashwin accounted for Kohli (29 off 24), before AB de Villiers came in and hit top gear from the word go to put RCB in the driver’s seat. Padikkal (50 off 41) too perished after smashing his 5th IPL 2020 half century, but De Villiers continued in his merry way.

Even though Kagiso Rabada (2 for 30) and Anrich Nortje (3 for 33) came back strongly in the death overs, De Villiers (35 off 21) and Shivam Dube (17 off 11) made sure RCB reached a decent total of 152 for 7.

Chasing 153 to secure a place in the knockouts, DC were jolted early as Mohammed Siraj castled Prithvi Shaw (9 off 6) in the second over of the run-chase to leave the match evenly poised. Shikhar Dhawan – who had registered 2 ducks in the previous matches – and Ajinkya Rahane then forged an 88-run second-wicket stand to put DC on course for a top-2 finish.

However, the match again came back to life after Shahbaz Ahmed (2 for 26) accounted for Dhawan (54 off 41) and Shreyas Iyer (7 off 9). Rahane (60 off 46) followed suit soon, which meant that DC lost 3 wickets in a span of 6 deliveries.

But Rishabh Pant and Marcus Stoinis held their nerve to guarantee them a place in IPL playoffs and hand RCB their 4th IPL 2020 loss on the trot.

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Twitter reacts to IPL 2020, DC vs RCB