Rajasthan Royals bounced back from the defeat against Punjab Kings to beat Delhi Capitals by 57 runs in Match 11 of TATA IPL 2023 at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati, and register their second win of the tournament.
Openers Jos Buttler (79 off 51) and Yashasvi Jaiswal (60 off 31) set the platform before Shimron Hetmyer provided the final flourish to propel RR to a competitive 199/4. Trent Boult starred with the ball with 3/29 as a disciplined bowling performance saw RR restrict DC to 142/9 and win the match by 57 runs.
Chasing 200, DC were rocked early as Impact Player Prithvi Shaw was caught behind brilliantly by Samson off Boult in the first over. Boult made it two wickets in two balls as he trapped Manish Pandey LBW with a superb inswinger. The batter reviewed it but replays showed three reds with the ball hitting the leg stump. Boult nearly had the hat-trick as he beat Rilee Rossouw’s outside edge off the next ball. Boult started off with a double wicket maiden.
Warner and Rossouw got together and tried to steady the ship, adding 36 off 30 balls but R Ashwin struck in the last over of the Powerplay to send back Rossouw and jolt DC further.
RR introduced Murugan Ashwin as their Impact Player in the 8th over, replacing Jos Buttler. The home team kept things tight with disciplined bowling. Warner finally got a boundary after 20 balls as he pulled one behind square leg for a four off Boult and Lalit Yadav made it two in the over with a well-placed four through backward point to make it 13 off the over. DC trudged to 68/3 at the halfway mark.
Lalit Yadav provided some impetus with two reverse-swept fours off Yuzvendra Chahal. Warner and Yadav brought up the fifty partnership off 36 balls.
Just when it looked like Warner and Lalit were injecting some momentum, Boult struck to break the 64-run partnership as he made Lalit drag one onto the stumps after being hit for a four off the previous ball. Lalit played a nice brisk innings of 38 off 24 but couldn’t go ahead and make a big one. Boult finished with impressive figures of 4-1-29-3.
The required run-rate kept creeping up as it went over 15 and in a bid to accelerate Axar Patel departed, stumped off Chahal. Warner brought up his fifty off 44 balls but wickets kept falling as Rovman Powell holed out to deep mid-wicket off Ashwin as he finished with brilliant figures of 4-0-25-2.
With 82 needed off 24 balls and four wickets in hand, DC required a miracle which didn’t arrive as they trudged to 142/9. RR clinched the match by 57 runs.
Warner scored 65 off 55 balls and was trapped LBW in the penultimate over by Chahal who finished with excellent figures of 4-0-27-3.
Earlier, Delhi Capitals captain David Warner won the toss and elected to bowl. They made four changes to the side as Rovman Powell, Lalit Yadav, Manish Pandey and Khaleel Ahmed replaced Mitchell Marsh, Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan and Aman Khan. They named Aman Khan, Prithvi Shaw, Sarfaraz Khan, Ishant Sharma and Pravin Dubey as their substitutes.
RR, on the other hand, made two changes to the side as Dhruv Jurel and Sandeep Sharma replaced Devdutt Padikkal and KM Asif. They named Navdeep Saini, Akash Vashisht, Murugan Ashwin, KM Asif and Donovan Ferreira as their substitutes.
RR opener Yashasvi Jaiswal was up and running straight away as hit three fours off the first three balls off the innings and overall, five fours in the first over. He smacked a pull for four off the first ball, cut one to third man the next ball and drove the third one through extra cover. After a dot, he smashed the next one over mid on and cut the last one over short third man to make it five fours and 20 runs off the over.
Jos Buttler joined the party hitting three fours off the second over from Anrich Nortje. He got off the mark with a four, thumping one through covers off Nortje, then slashed one over short third man for another four, and then placed one wide of mid off for the third four of the over. All 32 runs off the first two overs came in boundaries.
Jaiswal finally took the first single of the innings as he pushed one to mid off and scampered through for a quick single. Mukesh Kumar did concede a four in the third over but he did well to restrict the batters to just 7.
RR’s 50 came up in the fourth over as Buttler survived a scare following a fantastic effort from Nortje who nearly pulled off a brilliant catch running backwards at mid on. Warner brought Axar into the attack in the fifth over and Jaiswal took the attack to the all-rounder straightaway, hitting him for three consecutive fours.
Nortje bowled a good last over of the Powerplay, giving away just five as RR reached 68/0 from the first six overs.
Jaiswal reached his fifty in style, off just 25 balls, with consecutive fours off Axar. The pair then went after Kuldeep Yadav, hitting two fours and a six to make it 17 off the over.
Warner brought back Mukesh Kumar and he finally provided some relief for DC as he had Jaiswal caught and bowled off a top edge for 60(31). The short ball did the trick for the bowler. Mukesh bowled a brilliant over and gave away just two runs including the wicket of Jaiswal.
The second wicket arrived for RR quickly as Kuldeep had Samson caught at long on. And they nearly had the third as Kuldeep induced a leading edge off Riyan Parag but it fell short of the diving Kuldeep.
The DC bowlers pulled things back, conceding just 16 and picking two wickets in the 9-12 overs phase.
Buttler finally broke the deadlock as he pulled one over deep mid-wicket off Axar to bring up his fifty off just 32 balls. He however lost Riyan Parag at the other end in the next over, cleaned up by Rovman Powell as RR could garner just eight runs off the next two overs. Buttler again upped the ante as he hit first boundary after 20 balls, paddling one to long leg off Mukesh Kumar for a four and then thumping the next one down the ground for back to back fours.
Hetmyer finally got going as he hit a six and a four off Powell to make it 14 off the over. Buttler and Hetmyer found their range as they added 49 off 29 balls. Mukesh Kumar finally dismissed Buttler for 79(51) in the penultimate over to break the stand. Dhruv Jurel started off in style with a six off the first ball. Hetmyer provided the final flourish with two sixes off Nortje in the final over as RR accumulated 16 runs to finish on 199/4 from 20 overs.
Hetmyer remained unbeaten 39 off 21. RR scored 69/1 in the last five overs.
DC introduced Prithvi Shaw as their Impact Player and he came out to open with Warner. Khaleel Ahmed made way for Shaw.
