It was the match between two young captains and Sanju Samson’s Rajasthan Royals emerged victorious from this encounter. In what turned out to be another nail-biting last-over finish, Rajasthan Royals recorded their first win of IPL 2021. Delhi Capitals thought they had this game in the bag but faltered towards the end. With this win, the men in pink have moved to the 5th position in the points table while Delhi is just one spot above them on fourth.
Jaydev Unadkat ran through the Delhi top order with some extremely clever bowling. He made use of the slow ball really well which deceived the batsman and they ended up throwing their wicket. Mustafizur Rahman also joined the party making use of the slow ball well to dismiss the dangerous Marcus Stoinis. After a top-order collapse, the Delhi captain Rishabh Pant bailed his team out with a well-fought 51 until he was run out, courtesy- some brilliant piece of fielding by young Riyan Parag. After the dismissal of Rishabh Pant, Lalit Yadav who had supported his skipper beautifully was also dismissed. The onus then fell on the English all-rounder’s Tom Curran and Chris Woakes who hit a couple of boundaries each and guided their team to 147.
Everyone thought this was going to be a smooth ride for Sanju Samson and Co, but the Delhi bowlers had different plans. Chris Woakes started superbly picking both the Rajasthan openers in the space of 3 balls. After that Delhi’s ace bowler picked up the Rajasthan captain Sanju Samson putting the team in a spot of bother. It looked like Rajasthan in the absence of Ben Stokes had lost the plot. The only hope left was ‘Killer Miller’. David Miller has a reputation for snatching matches away from teams with his explosive batting, and boy did he live up to that reputation.
Rajasthan Royals Back On Track
He kept losing partners but never lost hope. Pushing the ball around running hard and hitting the occasional boundary when needed to keep the scoreboard ticking. He hit two sixes in a row and attempted to clear the boundary for the third time but was caught at long-on. After that, the most expensive player in the IPL auction history took matters into his own hands.
He along with Unadkat took the game deep. Chris Morris then hit Delhi’s death overs specialist Kagiso Rabada for two sixes in the penultimate over. Rajasthan needed 12 of the final over. Morris was cool calm and confident and pulled off and MS Dhoni-Esque final over finish hitting Tom Curran for two sixes to seal the game for the Royals.
Everyone expected this game to be a high-scoring one. History also tells us that games in Mumbai are the ones where you see huge totals made and being chased down. This game was the absolute opposite.
It was a low-scoring thriller which was certainly enjoyed by everyone. Jaydev Unadkat was awarded the player of the match and rightly so. His figures of 4-0-15-3 were absolutely eye-catching on this batting-friendly wicket. Out of the three games played in Mumbai all three have been won by teams batting second. The captains who win the toss also prefer to bowl first and we might see this trend continuing. Fielding of the highest order was on display today. We witnessed some great catches and superb runouts on the field today. The only thing which might catch some eyes is the fact that Delhi didn’t make use of the slow balls like Rajasthan. Instead, they bowled quicker deliveries and extracted movement from the pitch.
All in all, it was a great game of cricket which was not only enjoyed by the fans of the respective teams but also neutral fans. Rajasthan Royals will be next seen in action on 19th April vs the Chennai Super Kings, while Rishabh Pant’s team will be seen playing on Sunday vs the Punjab Kings.
Brief Scores
Rajasthan Royals 150 for 7 (Miller 62, Morris 36*, Avesh 3-32) beat Delhi Capitals 147 for 8 (Pant 51, Unadkat 3-15) by three wickets
