Delhi Capitals (DC) shattered the playoff hopes of Punjab Kings (PBKS) by defeating them in the 64th match of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. Rilee Rossouw shined for DC in their victory and played a crucial role in helping his team register a 15-run win in the contest.
Asked to bat first, Delhi got off to a flying start with skipper David Warner and Prithvi Shaw webbing a 94-run opening partnership. While Warner contributed 46 runs to the team total, Shaw scored brilliant 54 runs off 38 balls. Apart from the duo of Shaw and Warner, Rossouw hammered quickfire 82 runs off 37 deliveries and powered DC to a mammoth total of 213/2 in their allotted 20 overs.
During his sensational knock, Rossouw smashed six fours and as many sixes. Notably, one of those maximums from the left-handed batter was 96 metres long and went out of the stadium. The massive stroke from the DC batter even drew the attention of legendary South African and former Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) player AB de Villiers.
Out of the park! 💪 💪
Relive @Rileerr's mighty MAXIMUM 👇
Follow the match ▶️ https://t.co/lZunU0ICEw#TATAIPL | #PBKSvDC | @DelhiCapitals pic.twitter.com/WranEQmEeE
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 17, 2023
De Villiers expressed his excitement in a unique manner as he took to Twitter and refused to believe the distance of Rossouw’s six to be 96 metres and exclaimed it as ‘maybe 196’.
Maybe 196m
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) May 17, 2023
Coming back to the match, Sam Curran was the only bowler for Punjab to pick up wickets.
In reply, PBKS started terribly in the run chase and lost their captain Shikhar Dhawan for a duck. However, Atharva Taide slammed a brilliant fifty and kept his team alive in the hunt. Although Liam Livingstone also scored a quickfire 94 off 48 balls, he failed to get his side across the line, and PBKS eventually fell 15 runs short in the chase managing to score 198/8 in their 20 overs.
Ishant Sharma and Anrich Nortje were the picks of the bowlers for DC, bagging two scalps each for their team. Rossouw was adjudged ‘Player of the Match’ for his sensational performance.
