Delhi Capitals continued on their dominating run in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) as they defeated Rajasthan Royals by 13 run at the Dubai International Stadium on Wednesday.
It was Delhi’s sixth win from eight matches and with 12 points now, Shreyas Iyer’s men have regained the top spot in the points table. They dethroned Mumbai Indians. Rajasthan, meanwhile, stand seventh with six points from eight matches.
Opting to bat first, Delhi Capitals put on board a commendable total of 161/7 courtesy of a half-centuries by Shikhar Dhawan (57) and skipper Shreyas Iyer (53).
Defending the total, Delhi bowler showed their usual brilliance with an a-round display where each of them contributed to the team’s cause.
Anrich Nortje (2/33) and Tushar Deshpande (2/37) were the pick of the bowlers, while Kagiso Rabada (1/28), Ravichandran Ashwin (1/17) and Axar Patel (1/32) were also on the money as they restricted Rajasthan to 148/8.
Chasing the target, RR was off to a decent start as Ben Stokes (41) and Jos Buttler (22) added 21 runs in the initial two overs.
Nortje castled Buttler’s stump in the final ball of the third over, leaving RR at 37/1.
Stokes and Sanju Samson then anchored the RR innings with a 46-run stand for the third wicket before Tushar Deshpande got rid of the former in the 11th over.
Samson, too, departed soon, courtesy Axar Patel as RR found them reeling at 97/4 wickets in 11.4 overs.
Robin Uthappa (32) and Rahul Tewatia (14) tried their best to keep RR in the chase. However, the former fell to Nortje. On the other hand, Tewatia failed to explode, taking 18 balls for his unbeaten 14.
Earlier, after losing opener Prithvi Shaw (0) and Ajinkya Rahane (2), Dhawan and Iyer took control of the proceedings. Both the DC batters became a victim of Jofra Archer.
The Dhawan and Iyer pair then repaired the early damage with an 85-run partnership for the third wicket before the former fell in the 12th over, thanks to Shreyas Gopal (1/31).
Iyer was packed back by Kartik Tyagi (1/30) in the 16th over before Marcus Stoinis and Alex Carey chipped in with 18 and 14 runs respectively to help DC manage a fighting total.
For RR, Archer starred with figures of 3/19 while Jaydev Unadkat picked two for 32 runs.
Brief scores: DC: 161/7 wkts in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 57, Shreyas Iyer 53; Jofra Archer 3/19) beat RR 148/8 wkts in 20 overs (Ben Stokes 41, Robin Uthappa 32; Anrich Nortje 2/33) by 13 runs
With IANS inputs