Yuzvendra Chahal and Nandre Burger picked two wickets each while Sandeep Sharma and Avesh Khan produced some excellent death bowling as Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Capitals by 12 runs to continue the trend of home teams winning in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 so far at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Thursday.
After Riyan Parag enthralled the home fans by smashing an eye-catchy unbeaten 84 off just 45 deliveries to help RR make a competitive 185/5, captain Sanju Samson made his bowling changes spot-on and the bowlers didn’t let him down, especially in the death overs, by restricting DC to 173/5.
Chasing 186, Mitchell Marsh thumped five boundaries, before being castled through the gate by a 146kph delivery from Burger in the fourth over. After Ricky Bhui survived a lbw call, Burger bounced out the batter with a fiery bouncer which got big on him and lobbed off the front glove to give wicketkeeper Sanju Samson an easy catch.
David Warner cut loose by scooping and lofting Trent Boult for a brace of sixes, before taking a four and six off Burger as DC ended Power-play at 59/2. Warner continued to be DC’s aggressor, driving and pulling to collect boundaries, apart from surviving a run-out chance in the ninth over.
From the other end, Rishabh Pant took his time to get going but used his hands well to steer and cut for two boundaries, before a slog-sweep against Chahal was palmed over by deep mid-wicket to give him his first six post return to the competitive game.
The 67-run partnership off 46 balls for the third wicket ended when Warner flashed hard at an Avesh delivery and Sandeep, at short third man, moved to his right to complete a brilliant catch.
In a bid to bring the required run rate down, Pant looked to cut a wide delivery from Chahal but edged behind to Samson. Impact Player Abishek Porel was next to fall, holing out to long-off to become Chahal’s second scalp.
Tristan Stubbs, who hit a four previously off Sandeep, was lucky to be dropped at deep mid-wicket by Boult off Ashwin. To rub salt in the wound, Stubbs pulled and lofted cleanly against the off spinner for a brace of sixes to keep DC in the hunt.
After Axar Patel steered Avesh for four, Stubbs smacked six and four off Sandeep, who found his radar later in the over, to make the equation as 17 runs needed off the final over for victory. But Avesh kept his calm to give away only four runs in the last over to seal RR’s second successive win in the competition.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 185/5 in 20 overs (Riyan Parag 84 not out, Ravichandran Ashwin 29; Axar Patel 1-21, Khaleel Ahmed 1-24) beat Delhi Capitals 173/5 in 20 overs (David Warner 49, Tristan Stubbs 44 not out; Yuzvendra Chahal 2-19, Nandre Burger 2-29) by 12 runs