A fighting knock of unbeaten 70 off 53 deliveries from captain Sanju Samson went in vain as Rajasthan Royals suffered a bitter defeat at the hands of DC in Match 36 of the IPL 2021 on Saturday.
Having gone through an extended period of inconsistency following his century in RR’s first match of the tournament in India, Samson finally regained his best form and rhythm at the crease.
He was arguably the best batter on show from either side and made a fantastic half-century, even as the rest of the RR batting unit struggled to get going against DC’s robust bowling line-up on a surface playing quite dry on a scorching UAE afternoon.
While Samson batted at a strike-rate of 132.08 and kept RR’s fight intact from an end, the rest of his batting unit could only manage a total of 51 runs off the remaining 67 balls in the innings. 19 off 24 deliveries from middle-order batter Mahipal Lomror was the second-highest individual score of the innings.
Defending a less than ideal score of 154/6, DC needed their bowlers to strike early and pile on the asking rate and the pressure for RR batters. And that is exactly what the new-ball pair of Avesh Khan and Anrich Nortje provided. Avesh got Englishman Liam Livingstone edging a ball behind before Nortje also induced a nick against Indian uncapped left-hander Yashasvi Jaiswal.
After the pacers lent the first punch for DC and reduced the opposition to 6/2, spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel also started in their element and stitched one tight over after another, maintaining a tight leash on run-scoring and forcing RR batters to take risks.
Ashwin (1/20) and Axar (1/27) collectively gave away only 47 runs from their eight overs and took the wickets of David Miller (7) and Riyan Parag (2), respectively. Avesh (1/29) and Nortje (2/18), as well as Kagiso Rabada (1/26), also finished with fantastic figures as RR could only reach 121/6 in their 20 overs, losing by a significant margin of 33 runs.
The way the first half went, RR would’ve expected to come out triumphant on the day, but they only had to settle with disappointment and despair because of some insipid batting performance, even though most of their bowlers had done a fine job.
Left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman (2/22) was the pick of the bowlers for RR, whose wrist-spinner Rahul Tewatia (1/17) also bowled a tight spell. Even young quick Chetan Sakariya (2/33) performed reasonably well.
But last match’s hero Kartik Tyagi (1/40) and debutant left-arm wrist-spinner Tabraiz Shamsi (0/34) proved to be the letdowns for RR, giving DC batters the much-needed pressure release and breather whenever they required.
DC didn’t have the best of games with the bat after their opening batters, and tournament top-scorers Shikhar Dhawan (8) and Prithvi Shaw (10) fell inside the first five overs. Thankfully, former skipper Shreyas Iyer (43) and his captaincy successor Rishabh Pant (24) were able to revive the innings somewhat. Iyer looked the most in-flow DC batter as he went after Shamsi in the middle-overs and never let him settle.
However, just when Iyer was setting himself up for a more substantial score and Pant aiming to enter the second gear with his innings, they were both dismissed in quick succession. But a useful cameo from Shimron Hetmyer (28) and lower-order runs from Lalit Yadav (14*), Axar (12), allowed DC to breach the 150-mark.
Brief scores
Delhi Capitals 154/6 in 20 overs (Iyer 43, Hetmyer 28; Rahman 2/22, Sakariya 2/33) beat Rajasthan Royals 121/6 in 20 overs (Samson 70*, Lomror 19; Nortje 2/18, Ashwin 1/20) by 33 runs.
