XtraTime Web Desk – Devdutt Padikkal continues to roar in the IPL as he struck his 5th fifty for Royal Challengers Bangalore this season against Delhi Capitals on Monday. With this superb knock, the 20 year old opener also broke two records in one single day. He became the highest un-capped run scorer in a debut season and has also eclipsed Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer for most number of fifties in an IPL season by an un-capped player. Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer achieved this feat when they scored 4 fifties in 2008 and 2015 IPL editions respectively.
Padikkal has been a continuous performer for RCB throughout the season, giving them a solid start to base their innings on. He has till now scored 472 runs in 14 matches at an impressive average of 33.71, smashing 51 fours and 8 sixes. The talented southpaw has now gone on to become the highest run scorer for RCB this season surpassing Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.
In their last league match against Delhi Capitals on Monday, he looked stern as usual playing flamboyantly to score a fifty of 40 deliveries giving RCB a platform to build upon. But after he was dismissed by Anrich Nortje on 50, RCB lost its momentum and could only manage 152 loosing 7 wickets. This target turned out to be not enough for a win as Delhi Capitals chased it down with 6 balls to spare riding high on half centuries of Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane.
Both Delhi Capitals and Royal Challengers Bangalore have qualified for the playoffs with Delhi securing a 2nd place with this win and Bangalore finishing 3rd place.