Dubai: Rajasthan Royals (RR) made a mess of what could have been an easy run chase as Delhi Capitals (DC) bowlers’ brilliance in the death overs hand their side a commendable 13-run win in their IPL game here, Wednesday.
RR were requiring only 39 off last five overs, and with five wickets in hand it could have been a simple task. However, they made a mess of it. The credit goes to DC bowlers, who conceded only 25 runs, including an eight-run final over bowled by debutant Tushar Deshpande (2/37).
Chasing a challenging 162, RR were off to flying start with the openers – Ben Stokes (41) and Jos Buttler (22) – adding 37 runs in 2.5 overs. Anrich Nortje (2/33) broke the stand in the final ball of the third over, dismissing Buttler.
Six balls later, R Ashwin (1/17) took a simple catch off his own bowling to get rid of skipper Steve Smith to reduce RR to 40/2. Then Stokes and Sanju Samson (25) added 46 runs for the third wicket before Deshpande dismissed Stokes in the 11th over for his first IPL wicket.
Then, RR lost wickets at regular intervals before bowing down to DC bowlers’ death-overs heroics. Robin Uthappa (32) batted well before getting out in search for some big hits. RR could muster only 148/8.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan (57, 33b, 6×4, 2×6) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (53, 43b, 3×4, 2×6), who didn’t take the field after injuring his shoulder in the fifth over’s final ball of RR innings, hit stroke-filled half centuries but DC lost momentum towards the end to be restricted to 161/7.
The last five overs of the DC innings yielded only 32 runs and they lost four wickets. DC had a disastrous start to their innings after opting to bat as they lost Prithvi Shaw off the first ball of the match with a gem of a delivery from Jofra Archer (3/19) that jagged back in after pitching and crashed into the middle stump after getting an inside edge.
To make matters worse for DC, Ajinkya Rahane was holed out to Uthappa off Archer at mid-on an over later. But then skipper Iyer joined hands with Dhawan and the duo shared 85 runs for the third wicket off 55 balls.
After Dhawan’s dismissal, Iyer took the onus on himself and upped the ante with some lusty hits. But soon after, Iyer departed, Marcus Stoinis (18) and Alex Carey (14) tried their best to add muscle to the scoreboard but were unsuccessful.
Brief scores: DC 161/7 (Shikhar Dhawan 57, Shreyas Iyer 53; Jofra Archer 3/19, Jaydev Unadkat 2/32) beat RR 148/8 (Ben Stokes 41; Anrich Nortje 2/33, Tushar Deshpande 2/37) by 13 runs.
