New Delhi: Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel slammed fifties in contrasting fashion, while Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bowled superb spells as Delhi Capitals kept alive their hopes of making playoffs in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 with a 20-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here.
Following fifties from Fraser-McGurk and Porel, Tristan Stubbs gave the finishing touches to the innings with a 20-ball 41 to propel Delhi Capitals to 221/8. In reply, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bowled decisive spells of 2-25 and 2-30 respectively to restrict RR to 201/8 in 20 overs.
The win sees DC jump to fifth place in the points table and they are now tied with LSG, SRH and CSK at 12 points. It is also the second straight time that RR, despite a brilliant 86 from captain Sanju Samson, have failed to complete a chase and need to wait longer to seal their Playoff spot.
Khaleel Ahmed struck in his first over as he had Yashasvi Jaiswal miscuing a slower bouncer to mid-off. Sanju Samson upped the ante with sublime timing on his loft, drive, flat-batted smashes, punch, flick and piercing the gaps in cover with precision to hit five fours and three sixes in the power-play.
But RR lost Jos Buttler in the last over of the six-over phase, as he chopped onto his stumps off Axar Patel, meaning his catch being dropped by Tristan Stubbs didn’t become costly for DC. With Axar and Kuldeep operating in tandem, DC forced a slowdown by giving 25 runs in overs 7-10, though Riyan Parag got two sixes and a four.
That effort paid off as Parag was castled by a slower ball from Rasikh Salam which hit the top of off-stump. Samson went on to get his fifth IPL 2024 fifty in 28 balls by clearing his front leg and smacking Kuldeep over long-on for six off a free hit. Sitting deep in the crease, Samson hit Rasikh for six over long-on, followed by cutting and muscling him for four and six respectively.
With 91 runs needed off 42 balls, Samson just cleared cover off Ishant for four, before Shubham Dubey punched and muscled the pacer for four and six respectively to take 17 runs off the 14th over. Khaleel giving away four wides in an 11-run 15th over meant the equation for RR became 63 runs off 30 balls for the win.
