IPL 2026 RCB vs DC Live Score, Royal Challengers Bengaluru vs Delhi Capitals Match Live Updates: Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru have gotten off to a flyer by Virat Kohli and Phil Salt with RCB scoring 13/0 after 1 over after being asked to bat first by Delhi Capitals’ Rajat Patidar. The RCB vs Delhi Capitals game at Bengaluru’s Chinnaswamy Stadium on Saturday is the first game of an IPL 2026 double header. RCB are a win away from rising to the top of the standings while Delhi’s season has not been going great.

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Both RCB and Delhi have named unchanged sides from their previous games.

For RCB, Virat Kohli and Rajat Patidar have been the standout batters so far, with Kohli currently second in the Orange Cap standings. Delhi Capitals’ batting meanwhile can be summed up by the fact that they have had only four half centuries from their batters so far, with Sameer Rizvi scoring two of them.

RCB and DC Playing XIs for today:

Delhi Capitals (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, KL Rahul(w), Sameer Rizvi, Axar Patel(c), David Miller, Tristan Stubbs, Auqib Nabi Dar, Lungi Ngidi, Kuldeep Yadav, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar

Royal Challengers Bengaluru (Playing XI): Virat Kohli, Philip Salt, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar(c), Jitesh Sharma(w), Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Krunal Pandya, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Suyash Sharma, Josh Hazlewood

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Josh Hazlewood’s fake slower ball — and why it makes him RCB’s most dangerous weapon in IPL 2026

Lucknow Super Giants’ Nicholas Pooran, right, reacts after getting bowled out by Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s Josh Hazlewood during an Indian Premier League cricket match. (AP Photo)

The grip suggested a slower ball. The loading suggested a slower ball. Nicholas Pooran, one of the most destructive left-handers in T20 cricket, read it as the slower ball. The ball arrived at 140.6 kmph. Pooran was late.

It was Wednesday night at Chinnaswamy. Hazlewood had just taken his first wicket of IPL 2026 — on his return from injury, in front of a crowd that knows him well. He had already forced Rishabh Pant off, retired hurt, after striking his right elbow with a sharp lifter. The delivery that dismissed Pooran explained everything: why he is central to RCB’s title defence — and why the IPL took so long to fully value him.

Andre Adams has a simple explanation for why Hazlewood works in T20 cricket, even when conventional wisdom said he shouldn’t.

“He’s not super fast. But he’s fast enough.”

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