IPL 2021 | Anrich Nortje joins Delhi Capitals' team bubble

Ishant Sharma suffering from heel niggle: Ricky Ponting

Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting has said that pacer Ishant Sharma is suffering from a heel niggle while praised the youngster Avesh Khan who has been impressive for the side so far in the competition. "Coming into the first game, Ishant Sharma obviously had a heel niggle that we have been trying to work through but Avesh grabbed his opportunity with both hands. He has been around with this franchise for a few years now and has not got the opportunity that he has been craving,” Ponting said. DC suffered a defeat against Rajasthan Royals in Mumbai on Thursday. RR who were left struggling at 40/5 while chasing 149 in 20 overs rode on some fine batting from South Africa’s David Miller and a late surge from the all-rounder Chris Morris during the course. Miller went on to score a half-century while Morris remained unbeaten at 36 off 18 to see his side home and hand them maiden points in the tournament. Talking about the defeat, the former Australian captain admitted that DC missed out on the trick after they didn’t bowl out R Aswhin. Ashwin returned with economical figures and just gave 14 runs in three overs that he bowled. "That's certainly something that we will talk about when I get a chance to sit down with the team. He had bowled beautifully. Three overs, none for 14. Hadn't even conceded a boundary,” Ponting said. DC will now play Punjab Kings in Mumbai on Sunday.

I am a slogger and I'm paid for that: Chris Morris

Rajasthan Royals all-rounder Chris Morris played an incredible innings on Thursday against Delhi Capitals in Mumbai and led his side to a win by 7 wickets. RR were reeling at 40/5 when first David Miller took the charge and held the innings together while scoring a fifty for his team and then Morris chipped in with an unbeaten 18-ball 36 to eventually take his team over the line in the last over. Talking about his knock, Morris mentioned about his role with the bat in the team. "There are guys who get paid to bat and there are guys who get paid to slog, I know what I am. I am a slogger that swings everything I can, I play so much golf," he said. The right-handed batsman further expressed his delight on the win and said that the performance against DC has given the franchise confidence that the team can make a comeback from any stage. "If we had to chase 140-odd when we got here, we would have taken it, so happy to get over the line...it's quite nice to know that we can win a game from anywhere after being down in the dumps. That's T20 cricket," he added. Earlier, Delhi Capitals had managed to score 147/8 in 20 overs after riding on a fifty from skipper Rishabh Pant and a late partnership of 28 runs for the seventh wicket between Tom Curran and Chris Woakes. RR will now play CSK in Mumbai on Tuesday while DC will be up against Punjab Kings at the same venue on Monday.

Thought it was tough to chase the target after getting reduced to 40 for 5: Sanju Samson

Rajasthan Royals etched their first win in the IPL 2021 on Thursday, courtesy a half-century from South Africa’s David Miller and then a late surge from his Proteas teammate Chris Morris against Delhi Capitals in Mumbai. Chasing 148 in 20 overs, RR were reduced to 42/5 before Miller took the charge and got the side back on track while Morris played a match-winning innings at the end of the innings. Talking about the situation, RR captain Sanju Samson admitted that he had lost all hopes of winning the match after the side. “To be very honest, I thought that it was tough from 40 for 5. We had Miller and Morris, but I thought it was tough,” Samson said at the post-match presentation ceremony. “It’s about reading the conditions. It was a little sticky at the start. Taking pace off is the strength of our fast bowlers and that worked out,” he said. Samson further talked about how dew also played an important role in the later part of the game. “I think the dew plays a part here. I think they hit the length a lot better than we did and they got a lot of guys skying with the extra bounce. But we would have taken a chase of 140-odd.” Morris struck an unbeaten 18-ball 36 to take his team over the line by 3 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium. Avesh Khan, Chris Woakes and Kagiso Rabada picked up some wickets for Delhi Capitals. While Woakes and Rabada had a couple of scalps to their name, Avesh bagged a three-fer for his side during the course. Earlier, the Capitals too had a disappointing start to the proceedings after they lost some early wickets to be left tottering at 37/4. Captain Rishabh Pant then came up for the rescue and notched up a fine half-century before getting run out for 51. Later, Tom Curran and Woakes chipped in with some runs in the death overs to take the total to 147/8 in 20 overs. DC will now play Punjab Kings in Mumbai on Sunday while RR will lock horns with CSK at the same venue on Monday.

IPL 2021 | RR vs DC - What Experts said as Chris Morris' charge robs Delhi of a sure shot victory

Rajasthan Royals changed course to storm into the Indian Premier League after winning their second game at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Thursday, 15 April. The Sanju Samson-led outfit were once again in a spot of bother after deciding to chase second time on a row, but a tremendous fightback by South African duo - Chris Morris and David Miller meant that the Royals were not on the wrong side of things once again. Playing against the Delhi Capitals, RR looked down and out by the halfway stage of the game, but a second half counter attack initially led by David Miller and then carried on by Morris made sure that they got over the line with two balls to spare. In a game that weirdly favoured the bowlers in Wankhede, the Rajasthan pacers asserted their dominance, courtesy, a fantastic spell from Jaydev Unadkat put Delhi under the cosh very early in the game. Man of the match Unadkat used his entire arsenal of angles and variations and picked up the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan and Ajinkya Rahane, and reduced last year’s finalists to 36 for 3 inside the powerplay. Some fantastic fielding on the night from Royals meant that DC were majorly restricted in their approach barring a fantastic display by Rishabh Pant who took the attack to the opposition team, punishing anything bowled short to him at will. Speaking after the game, Pant rued the lack of runs and stated that it was the dew that got better of Delhi Capitals on the night. “I think the bowlers did a really good job in the start, but we let them get over us in the end. We could have bowled better. Dew got the better of us. I think we were 15-20 runs short. But there is something to gain from this match, the bowlers did well at the start. Hopefully in the future we can pull things off. I think in the second innings there was more dew than the first innings so we had to be doing our part, because the slower ball wasn't stopping.” Pant reflected after the game. The winning captain - Sanju Samson on the other hand looked relieved with the fact that they managed to win a tight chase tonight. Speaking in the post match show, Samson stated how he felt nervous after his side were down by 40/5 at a stage in the game and how things looked very tough from there. “To be very honest, I thought that it was tough from 40 for 5. We had Miller and Morris, but I thought it was tough. It's about reading the conditions. It was a little sticky at the start. Taking pace off is the strength of our fast bowlers and that worked out. We had a chat with Chetan and he was confident and clear and I thought he could take the responsibility. I was praying inside, Morris can you please get one six.” Experts talk There were a lot of takeaways from the game tonight. Say for example, the Rajasthan camp went with a three-pronged left-arm pace attack, something that has not been seen much in recent memory. Talking about pace bowling attack, the Mumbai pitch was not kind to pacers for both teams. While Royals' pacers reaped rewards for taking pace off the ball, Delhi got brutally punished off the same strategy in the second innings. And at the brunt of it was Tom Curran. He got smacked for 35 off his 3.4 overs failing to execute on pace works at a time when he got smacked out of the park while trying to bowl his trademark slower bouncers. Micheal Vaughan thanked the IPL for oen more thriller, something that is turning out to be a norm in the 14th edition of the league. An unlikely hero in Jaydev Unadkat emerged from the game and this brought in heaps of praises for the Saurashtra cricketer who hadn't quite had the best time in the IPL in years. Harsha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar were smitten by the Indian pacers on the night and stressed on the quality of the Indian pace bowling line-up that has come through in the early phases of this tournament. Manjrekar further noted how Rishabh Pant rallied his troops in the defence of a below par total that was always going to be tough in a small ground like Wankhede. For the last experts' tweet of the day, we have got a Sehwag special. Rebuked for his inability to hit the other night, Chris Morris turned up the tempo on Thursday, taking Rajasthan home from a precarious position when they required around 12 runs per over. Morris' clean hitting was the highlight of the night considering there wasn't a single six hit in the first innings. He took on the Delhi bowlers and deposited them across the park to scored 36 off 18 balls that included four huge sixes in them.