Image Credit- BCCI
The Delhi Capitals’ 221 proved to be too much for the Rajasthan Royals to chase down, despite Sanju Samson’s spectacular 46-ball 86. RR suffered their second straight defeat as DC skillfully defended their score after being called to bat, thanks to the six wickets shared by Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar, and Khaleel Ahmed.
At the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Fraser-McGurk entered the batting order with an average of 57.33 and a strike rate approaching 300. Trent Boult tried to silence him by starting from around the wicket in an attempt to halt him. It worked on the first try.
However, Fraser-McGurk met Boult with a loft down the ground for six when he came back for his second over, and then he smashed him for two more fours in a 15-run over. Then he tore into Avesh Khan, reaching his half-century off 19 deliveries after concluding his opening over with three straight fours.
In the last over of the powerplay, Fraser-McGurk hit a low full toss straight to cover, giving Ashwin the opportunity to strike. After that, Sandeep Sharma got a hand to deflect Porel’s straight drive against the stumps, run-outing Shai Hope at the non-striker’s end.
However, Porel did not allow DC’s momentum to waver, quickly reaching his own half-century of 28 balls. To maintain the borders, he faced up against Yuzvendra Chahal and Riyan Parag. Porel amassed 27 runs in the next two overs, even after Axar Patel was dismissed in the tenth over. However, he became Ashwin’s third victim of the evening on the thirteenth.
DC had to deal with a poor start from Stubbs after Rishabh Pant was removed by Yuzvendra Chahal in the fourteenth over. DC added just 22 runs with Stubbs on eight off 11 balls between the 14th and 17th overs. However, when Stubbs faced Chahal in the last over bowled by the spinner, everything turned around. His variety of sweeps enabled him to remove 16 runs from Chahal’s last over. Stubbs then hit back-to-back sixes to start the final over to ensure DC finished beyond 220.
In the opening over of the chase, Khaleel Ahmed had Yashasvi Jaiswal miscue to mid-off, but Samson continued to dominate in the powerplay. As Samson raced to 41 off 16, Khaleel, Ishant Sharma, and Mukesh took the brunt of his attack.
Samson and Parag had combined for just eight runs off nine balls, and the RR captain seemed to get more urgent after being dismissed. After reaching his half-century mark with a six off a free shot from Kuldeep, Salam bowled two sixes and a four off the next over. After an Ishant over that yielded 17 runs, Khaleel bowled four consecutive wides.
But Mukesh had Samson hole out just as the momentum was about to shift in RR’s favour. Hope nearly stumbled over the boundary rope after taking a long-shot run to his left. Samson rushed to the umpire in protest after the third official certified that it was, in fact, out, but he was forced to continue walking.
Shubham Dubey’s powerful strokes from Khaleel gave RR hope for a little while, but Kuldeep’s double-wicket 18th over dealt a fatal blow. RR was still 60 off 26 balls.
With their third straight home victory, DC advanced to fifth place in the standings thanks to the final goals from Salam and Mukesh.