Rajasthan Royals (RR) won their first game of the season by defeating Delhi Capitals (DC) in match 7 of the VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Thursday.
David Miller’s Fifty-One and finally Chris Morris’s terrific cameo sealed the victory for RR in another low-scoring thriller. Chasing 148 to win, Manan Vohra and Jose Butler started RR’s innings. When Vohra initially hit two consecutive boundaries off Chris Vokes after a few quiet overs, right-arm pacer R.R.
First, Vohra, who was trying to get to aerial, was expelled by Rabada long before Pantler’s terrible catch was taken to get Butler out. The Royals got into all sorts of trouble when they beat skipper Sanju Samson straight to Dhawan in the slips after the RR lost 26-3 at Rada’s pace.
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Shivam Dube was the next man to get out as Avesh Khan got the better of Dube, with his pace that produced a thick edge straight to the fly-slip. The pacer then diversified his pace by deceiving Riyan Parag, who not only completed the third catch of Dhawan’s innings but also got the height.
The Royals were 52-5 at the halfway mark. After a very quiet over, Miller greeted Marcus Stoinis with three boundaries in a row in the attack that sounded beautiful from the bat. Tewatia, who joined Miller after the fall of Ryan Parag, praised Miller, who recorded a crucial partnership for the fourth wicket, hitting two fours to Tom Curran in the 14th over.
The DC skipper Pant handed the ball to Rabada in the 15th over, and Seamer succeeded by dismissing Tetia with speed and bounce. Miller then brought his fifty and getting stronger, hoping for RR, who needed 58 runs in the final five overs to win.
In the 16th over, Miller hit two sixes in a row against the remnant and Avesh Khan was in the zone just before he was out on the fifth delivery after trying to complete a hat-trick of sixes on the left. It was a tough equation that was beyond RR’s reach after losing 7 wickets, with Morris and Unadkat at the crease.
With seven wickets down and 43 fours to enter the last four overs, RR was on the back foot and the pressure was on as they managed just 16 runs in the 17th and 18th overs. RR needed 27 runs in the last 2 overs. Then in the 19th over, the momentum was in RR’s favor as Morris would hit two sixes from Rabada to take the target to 12 in the final over.
DC chose to give Tom Curran the responsibility of defending those 12 runs. But Morris, as calm as ever, hit two sixes for England’s fast bowler and got RR on the line. Earlier, Sanju Samson won the toss and elected to bowl against DC. Chetan Sakariya, who got a great start in the previous game, made a great start against DC openers – Prithvi Shaw and Shikhar Dhawan – giving up just 2 runs in the first over of the innings.
At the other end, Jaydev Unadkat put a lot of pressure from the dot ball and the show ran out of patience, and in the second over of the match, he took the ball straight to the backward point. Dhawan was then relieved in the fourth over of the left-arm fast bowler’s innings by RR wicketkeeper-batsman and skipper, Samson’s scrimmage.
Pante put a little boundary to move the matter forward but the powerplay was by Jaydev Unadkat, who took his third wicket in six overs after dismissing Ajinkya Rahane, making DR / 36/3 after overs. Mustafizur Rahman joined the wicket-taking party after deceiving Marcus Stoinis with a slow cutter, getting the DC all-rounder out for a duck. Lalit Yadav, who joined Pant, played a couple of confident strokes for fours in the eighth over.
DC was still striking below 6 at the end of ten overs, with Pant and Lalit in between. The left-hander shifted gears and was bowled by Rahul Tewatia for four in the 11th over for 20 runs. He brought his half-century forward with four and helped DC get out of the difficult phase.
However, Pant hit himself with a direct hit from Rant Parag’s own bowling, as the RR broke the vital partnership between Pant and Lalit. Tewatia ran backward from the rest of the Royals’ fielding and made a just decision to dismiss Lalit.
With four overs to go, Curran and Woakes had the task of finishing the DC innings on a higher note. The duo hit three boundaries and added 28 runs before Curran was castled by Mustafizur’s slower-cutter. R Ashwin was run out after trying to double in the same over. DC scored 11 runs in the final over bowled by Sakaria and finished the innings with a total of 147/8.
Brief Scores: Rajasthan Royals 150/7 (David Miller 62, Chris Morris 36*; Avesh Khan 3/32) beat Delhi Capitals 147/8 (Rishabh Pant 51, Tom Curran 21; Jaydev Unadkat 3/15) by 3 wickets.
