Hello everyone. We just had another exciting match in IPL between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Capitals. The match was played at Wankhede and Rajasthan won the toss and decided to bowl first. Delhi dropped Shimron Hetmyer to bring in an all-rounder Lalit Yadav at his place. Delhi was still missing Anrich Nortje as he has tested positive for COVID-19 but Kagiso Rabada was back into the playing 11. Rajasthan brought in Jaydev Unadkat and the replacement of Ben Stokes, David Miller into their team as Stokes has been ruled out of the tournament due to a wrist injury.
Delhi had a very bad start and they lost the wickets of Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane, and Marcus Stoinis while they had only 38 runs on the board. Jaydev Unadkat dismissed three out of them after giving away just 15 runs in his 4 overs. Rishabh Pant and Lalit Yadav put up a good little partnership for the fifth wicket and increased the run rate for Delhi. But Riyan Parag pulled off a brilliant effort to run-out Pant soon after he had reached his fifty. Lalit Yadav too was dismissed in close succession and it looked like Delhi might not even reach 140. But their next 4 batsmen (who were part of the team primarily as bowlers) scored 52 runs collectively and Delhi scored 147 in their 20 overs, setting 148 as the target for Rajasthan.
Rajasthan would have been pleased with their performance halfway through the game and they would have expected the run-chase to be an easy one. But Delhi's bowlers had other plans. Rajasthan also lost their 5 wickets for 42 runs and they needed 97 more runs in the last 10 overs. That's when Rahul Tewatia put up 40+ runs partnership with David Miller, Miller being the more contributing and aggressive partner that Rajasthan was able to make a comeback in the game. But Tewatia was dismissed by Rabada on 19 runs and Rajasthan needed 58 runs to win in their final 5 overs. Miller smashed Avesh Khan for two consecutive sixes in the 16th over but was caught near the boundary line on the next ball. Rajasthan's chances looked slim at that moment and it seemed we were going to witness another low-scoring match being won by the team batting first. But Chris Morris and Jaydev Unadkat batted sensibly in the end. They scored 9 runs in the 17th over, 7 runs in 18th, 15 runs in the 19th over, and won the match with 2 balls to spare at the end. Chris Morris hit 4 sixes in the last two overs to take his side home and justify his massive price tag. Avesh Khan was the highest wicket-taker for Delhi today as well as he dismissed 3 Rajasthan batsmen that included the wicket of Miller too.
Delhi's decision to drop Simron Hetmyer and bring in Lalit Yadav over Steve Smith and Sam Billings was a bit surprising. Lalit Yadav might have been preferred for being an all-rounder but he didn't bowl a single over in the match. Delhi's top-order batsmen might want to play more sensibly in the upcoming matches.
Rajasthan's batsmen too would need to think about their batting. Manan Vohra and Shivam Dube couldn't do much today as well. Riyan Parag has been useful with his bowling but he needs to work on his batting as Rajasthan's batting needs to click together as they don't have the experience of Stokes in the middle for them in this season anymore.
Rajasthan gets those 2 crucial points after winning the match and has started their upward movement in the points table. But Chennai Super Kings would be looking to do the same thing in the next match of IPL when they face off against the Punjab Kings at the same Wankhede cricket stadium. Punjab won their first match against Rajasthan on the final ball of the match and they would be feeling very confident. Let's find out which team gets those crucial 2 points. Come back here Saturday morning to read how the match played out.
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