Brief Scores: Delhi Capitals 184/8 in 20 overs (Shimron Hetmyer 45, Marcus Stoinis 39; Jofra Archer 3/24)
beat
Rajasthan Royals 138/10 in 20 overs (Rahul Tewatia 38, Yashasvi Jaiswal 34; Kagiso Rabada 3/35) by 46 runs.
Delhi Capitals' well-oiled mechanisms functioned at optimal capacity to hand Rajasthan Royals their fourth straight defeat in the 23rd match of the Indian Premier League 2020. In pursuit of an attainable 185, RR endured the strain of a misfiring top-order to go down by a bumper 46 runs in a snoozefest on Friday, October 9 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
Ravichandran Ashwin was deservedly awarded the Man-of-the-Match for his game-changing spell of 2/22. Besides churning a valuable 35, Marcus Stoinis sneaked away with figures of 17/2 in his two overs to plot RR's demise in emphatic fashion.
Lazy RR find themselves in a pickle
Chasing anything below 200 at Sharjah is not a tough grind by any stretch of the imagination. But the boxes need to be ticked nonetheless. RR's inauguration was the polar opposite of what they'd have aspired for. Jos Buttler fell prey to a smart grab by Shikhar Dhawan as he chose the wrong ball to hoick off Ravichandran Ashwin. Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal and one down Steve Smith consumed an alarming number of deliveries with the scoreboard pressure breathing down their neck. Scuffling to keep his head above water, Smith managed to time a flick right out of the screws only to witness Shimron Hetmyer belly flop to grasp a blinder zipping in from deep mid-wicket.
Agile as a rabbit, DC complete formalities
The lucky ground puffery was rubbished as nonsense with Sanju Samson crumbling to his fourth successive single-digit score, his toe-edged swat registering more elevation than distance. Mahipal Lomror parcelled a dolly to catching cover off Ashwin before Jaiswal had his stumps tinkled by Stoinis' off-cutter, leaving RR in a rabbit hole of despair at 82/5.
Fortune was clearly favouring the brave as an off-guard Kagiso Rabada recovered stunningly to lay hold of Andrey Tye's vigorous jab at mid-wicket. Jofra Archer couldn't script a last-ditch miracle either, with Shreyas Iyer jogging backwards to pouch his benign golf-swing. Rahul Tewatia middled a few out of the park to bring about a nostalgia kick from THAT Sharjah heist, but 78 off 24 balls was just a heck of a lot of trash to clean for the pocket-sized dynamite. Hetmyer bettered his previous screamer by lifting from inches off the turf Shreyas Gopal's square-cut before Rabada had Tewatia chopping on for 38 to hammer the final nail in RR's coffin.
Rajasthan on an absolute roll
Banking upon the tried and tested doctrine of chasing at Sharjah, Steve Smith invited DC to have a crack. Although not without a couple of stopgaps in the playing eleven. Andrew Tye and Varun Aaron registered their season debuts as Tom Curran and Ankit Rajpoot made way. Safe to say, the skipper had hit the nail on the head as RR drew early blood.
Jofra Archer proved the undoing of Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, who'd already enjoyed a slice of luck earlier as Kartik Tyagi misjudged a skier charging in from fine-leg. Livewire Yashasvi Jaiswal then rubbed salt into DC's wounds, leaping across to intercept Shreyas Iyer's drive before clattering the stumps direct with a rifle-like throw to nab him a country- mile short.
Pant harakiri symptomatic of DC's plight
Marcus Stoinis extinguished the flames to a certain degree, picking the length and rocking onto the back-foot to tramp consecutive maximums over cow corner off Shreyas Gopal. However, no words can justify the split second of absurdity that transpired next. Stoinis knocked one to the left of mid-wicket and took a default prod in an approach to sneak a single, albeit non-striker Rishabh Pant was on a different planet altogether. He didn't bat an eye at the field, couldn't care less about his partner's consent and rushed blindly towards the striker's end as a loopy underarm pass sealed his fate.
Axar-Harshal flex their muscles after Hetmyer blaze
Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer joined forces to keep the engine pumping for a brief while till a languid flash of the blade off Rahul Tewatia spelt the former's doom at 39. The left-handed typhoon mashed Tyagi for two jumbo sixes to raze his economy, but the young quick was rewarded for his otherwise nifty exploits as long-on cupped Hetmyer's tonk for a spirited 45. Late cameos from Axar Patel and Harshal Patel were worth their weight in gold, rafting the pink jerseys to a par score of 184/8, which seemed a dicey proposition at first but turned out to be more than enough in the grander scheme of things.
What's next in store?
Down in the mouth, Rajasthan Royals will pray for an elusive victory in the first of Sunday's doubleheader against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday, October 11. Fireworks are expected later in the evening as Mumbai Indians tackle the rampaging bandwagon of Delhi Capitals.
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