‘Chuffed it came off in the last six balls’ — David Miller, on a finish that almost wasn’t

Delhi Capitals came to Bengaluru, fell three down inside three overs, recovered through KL Rahul taking Josh Hazlewood apart, then spent the middle overs being too careful for their own good.

Miller’s three-ball heist rescues Delhi after Bhuvneshwar’s early ambush and Rahul’s defiant fifty made Chinnaswamy believe

Bhuvneshwar’s three early wickets had threatened a rout. Rahul’s 57 off 34 turned it into a contest. When Axar hobbled off and the equation tightened over by over, Patidar kept Shepherd back, calculating. David Miller, still carrying something from a previous game, settled it in six balls.

Fifteen off the last over. Romario Shepherd, who hadn’t bowled a ball all game, had the ball in his hand.

David Miller and Tristan Stubbs were in the middle. The finisher and the man who had studied that finisher closely enough to remodel his own game around him. The pitch had been holding up all evening. The equation was tight. And Shepherd’s first ball — a length delivery on the leg — was hittable. Miller didn’t connect. Leg bye. One off one.

Stubbs dug out a yorker next ball. Thirteen off four.

Then Shepherd erred full. Miller, unhurried, walloped it into the stands. Then reached out for the next full ball outside off and smoked it over extra cover. Then whipped a full ball to the midwicket boundary. Three balls, three hits, match done. The student ran to the man whose batting had become his template, and they held each other in the middle.

𝗠𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗿 🫡

David Miller stands up tall and hits them big to take @DelhiCapitals to a thrilling victory 💥👏

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/vfJ6SccA9T#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #RCBvDC | @DavidMillerSA12 pic.twitter.com/I6FXLeOhXU

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 18, 2026

“It’s always going to be in the back of mind until you win another game,” Miller said afterwards, the memory of the previous game’s miscalculation when he didn’t take a single off the penultimate ball still fresh. “The week off helped mentally to stay in the moment. Chuffed it came off in the last six balls.” Stubbs, for his part, had already told him: “Thanks very much, you saved me there.”

It had nearly not come to this. Delhi’s chase was always cagey, occasionally too cagey. After KL Rahul fell for 57 — caught by a diving Kohli off Krunal Pandya — the engine stalled. In the 15th over, Axar and Stubbs played Krunal quietly, picking singles. Forty-six needed off 30, six wickets in hand. On most IPL tracks, a comfortable equation. On this one, where the ball held up and mistimed shots died in the outfield, less so. Then Axar hobbled off with cramps, replaced by Miller.

Hazlewood, relentless with the yorker in his death overs, gave five. Bhuvneshwar, equally disciplined, gave the same. The equation stretched each over. DC knew RCB would have to turn to a less experienced bowler at some point — they waited for it, preserved wickets, kept the equation just about manageable. It nearly wasn’t enough. The question that hung in the air through those final overs — were DC a touch too cautious, too willing to let the game drift toward the wire — didn’t have a clean answer. Only a result.

Delhi had done their damage with width earlier, when RCB were batting. Kuldeep tempted Salt once too often outside off — 63 off 38, but a flat-bat chip to long-off ended it. Mukesh removed Patidar the same way, Axar did the same to Tim David. Three batsmen, all undone by the same formula, on a pitch that punished anything played away from the body.

🎥 Same over, 2⃣ INCREDIBLE catches 😮

And Bhuvneshwar Kumar 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲 with the new ball 🔥#RCB are PUMPED, ft. Virat Kohli 😎

Updates ▶️ https://t.co/vfJ6SccA9T#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #RCBvDC | @RCBTweets pic.twitter.com/Veky1vd8DC

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 18, 2026

It was Bhuvneshwar who had set the tone at the other end of the evening. By the third over, Delhi were three down — and he had done all of it himself. A nip-backer first up to Nissanka, who reviewed it, got three reds, and walked. Karun Nair went hard at one outside off, got the outside half, and Phil Salt slid in at deep backward point to hold it. Then Sameer Rizvi — two match-winning knocks already this season — got a thick outside edge and Jitesh flung himself full length to his right, one hand. Three overs, three wickets, three different methods. None of them needed pace.

The man who once laughed on a podcast about the IPL being a “bowler-beating program” had made it look, briefly, like something else entirely.

KL Rahul walked in after that carnage and immediately targeted Hazlewood. He’d cleared his front leg before the ball arrived on the very first delivery, and sent it over extra cover for six. Hazlewood didn’t have an answer for that. When he pulled his length back, Rahul cut fiercely off his toes. When he came back for his second spell, Rahul met a full ball on middle and leg with a wristy, imperious whip over the leg side — art and commerce in the same stroke. At 57 off 34, he was the innings.

Then Kohli caught him. Diving, stretched, desperate — and it stuck. Delhi’s chase lost its spine in that moment, and only found it again three balls into the final over.

A fighting rescue mission filled with spectacular hits 👊

🎥 KL Rahul treated the fans to some majestic sixes during his crucial knock of 57(34)! 💙

Updates ▶️ https://t.co/vfJ6SccA9T#TATAIPL | #KhelBindaas | #RCBvDC | @DelhiCapitals | @klrahul pic.twitter.com/JA29LlOwDa

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 18, 2026

Miller hit the winning runs. Stubbs, who had watched him for years to learn how a finisher operates, was at the other end to see it get done.