Dismissing the draught, Rajasthan clutch their first victory of the season

David Miller flicking a fine shot to score his fifty against Delhi Capitals.

Rajasthan Royals stole the show from Delhi Chronicles with a close three run difference.

RR opened their innings with Manan Vohra and Jos Buttler. DC exerted the pressure from the start. Vohra could only score two consecutive boundaries off Chris Woakes, when he was dismissed in an aerial attempt by Rabada and Buttler was simply caught by Pant.

RR’s skipper Sanju Samson slipped off his wicket at the hands of Dhawan, ending RR’s powerplay at a struggling score of 26-3.

Next Avesh Khan tricked Shivam Dube leading to a fly-slip, sending him off back to the stands.

Dhawan continued and caught Riyan Parag next as part of his wrath.

At 52-5, Marcus Stoinis joined Miller and added three boundaries on the scoreboard. Tewatia was next to form strong partnership with Miller. He added couple of fours at Tom Curran’s delivery in the 14th over. However, there partnership was short lived as Tewatia was dismissed by Rabada in the 15th over.

Needing 58 off the final five overs, Miller was going strong battling against Avesh Khan with two consecutive sixes. However, his attempt of a hattrick was caught in Khan’s fifth delivery.

Now the pressure was mounting as by the end of 18th over, RR needed 27 runs to sign off the game in their favour. To their rescue, Morris in the 19th over swung the much needed two sixes off Rabada and repeated the same at the delivery of Tom Curran with 12 more runs, hence bringing afloat RR against DC for the much-needed win.

RR’s skipper Sanju Samson won the toss and chose to bowl first. Sakariya only gave 2 runs in the first over the innings against the Delhi Capitals duo Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan.

With dot balls to offer Jadav Unadkt bowled brilliantly and eventually got to Shaw, as he impatiently edged the ball straight to the backward point. Subsequently, the left arm pacer got Dhawan in his 2nd over.

Rishab Pant tried to rise on the situation by getting in a few boundaries. Before the powerplay concluded, Jaydev dismissed Ajinkya Rahane, picking his 3rd wicket in fashion. DC stood at 36/3 after 6 overs.

Next up was Marcus who was sent to the locker room on duck by Mustafizur Rahman. Lalit Yadav joined Pant on the crease and added a few 4’s to push the score for DC in the 8th over.

With Pant and Lalit in the middle, DC stood at a slow score of 57-4 at the end of 10 overs.
The left-handed batsman then smashed 20 runs in the 11th over and successfully scored his 50. The partnership was cut short as Riyan Parag executed an excellent direct hit of his own bowling and got Pant out.

Lalit followed suit and got caught in the hands of Tewatia who took a well-judged catch running backwards.
DC’s Curran and Woakes tried to finish off the game. They added 28 runs before Curran scummed to Mustafizur’s slower-cutter.

Trying to sneak in a double, R Ashwin fell short and ran himself out. Delhi managed 11 runs in the last over delivered by Sakariya and brought the target of 147/8 for Rajasthan to chase.

Match :8

Today’s Match -Friday, 16th April 2021. PBKS VS CSK

Venue: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai
Match Time:  19:30 IST (14:00 GMT)

Ms. Shriya Sinha Sports and Lifestyle Journalist