RR vs DC IPL 2024: Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Capitals by 12 runs

Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals batter Riyan Parag plays a shot during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 T20 cricket match between Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Delhi Capitals, at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur, Thursday, March 28, 2024. (PTI Photo) (PTI03_28_2024_000260B)

Rajasthan Royals won the match in the last 10 overs with the bat and the ball to hand Delhi Capitals a 12-run defeat at Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur today, Thursday. The second win for RR in as many games also maintained the tournament record of the home teams winning all the games so far in this season.

Set to chase 186, Delhi Capitals were left stranded at 173 for 5 due to some brilliant bowling and fielding by the home team after Pant and Co had progressed with precision in their batting till the half-way stage.

DC started well with the bat and the ball, only to see the advantage squander away in the latter half of both the innings. At 93 for 2 after 10 overs, the visitors were well on course to break the IPL 2024 trend of home team’s win in each game.

Just like RR had one with bat earlier, some smart bowling changes by Sanju Samson drove the visitors out of the match steadily. Avesh Khan first broke the David Warner-Rishabh Pant partnership – the duo had added 67 crucial runs for the third wicket off 46 deliveries – with the wicket of the veteran Aussie opener.

Warner (49, 34b, five 4s, three 6s) was in good control before top-edging a wide, over-pitched Avesh Khan delivery to Sandeep Sharma at short-third man.

The breaking news on Pant’s return to competitive cricket after 14 months since the life-threatening road accident in December 2022 was that the DC captain is ready for his role as a batter. His condition was to be evaluated for wicket keeping duties.

The realty in the two games has been just opposite. He has been brilliant behind the wickets. But a far cry from the batter who would hit single-handed sixes and innovative boundaries at will. A 26-ball 28 (two 4s and one 6) is not the kind of stuff the willower Pant is known for. Pant’s departure, caught behind off Chahal, effectively shut the doors on DC.

The asking rate had mounted above 15 by the 16th over when Trent Boult misjudged a skier by Tristan Stubbs. The match was almost dropped. Stubbs dispatched the next two over the ropes to shift the momentum toward DC. He fearlessly went after the RR bowlers, who had been just outstanding in the middle overs. After two big heaves off Ashwin, he picked Sandeep Sharma for a six and a four off the first two balls of the 19th, realising 15 from the over. As DC needed 17 in the last – RR had scored 25 – Avesh Khan held his nerves to deny DC, who were left stranded at 173/5 despite an outstanding start.

If cricket is a mind game, three RR bowlers - Yuzvendra Chahal, Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma – made their moves  with the wisdom of a chess grandmaster. Avesh accounted for the precious scalp of Warner and Chahal dismissed Pant and Abhishek Porel, but it was Sandeep Sharma who reigned in DC batters at the crucial stage of the match. The match figures of 4-0-36-0 will not describe his contribution to RR’s cause correctly.

The contribution from the batters and bowlers can be mentioned by name, but the fielding too made a big difference in the end game. There were few missed opportunities in the field except for the drop by Boult and a weak throw by Jaiswal costing the opportunity to catch Warner well short of the crease on the non-striker's end when the batter was on 41.

Earlier, it appeared a good call for DC to put RR in to bat. Yashasvi Jaiswal’s early departure, in the second over, allowed the Delhi bowlers to take the fight into the rival camp. But only until the half-way stage, before the arrival of Ravichandran Ashwin and the player of the match Riyan Parag marvellous feat.

One man changed the course of the game, from DC’s absolute domination at the half-way stage to “advantage RR” at the completion of the innings. It appeared the Assam lad batted on a different pitch against another bowling attack than what RR batters had faced and offered in the first half of the innings.

Parag initially played the supporting cast to Ravichandran Ashwin. The veteran India off-spinner was the first to take on the DC attack, hosting Kuldeep for the first six of the match in the 10th over and then hoisting Anrich Nortje in the next for two maximums. He fell trying to clear fellow India spinner Axar Patel over the mid-wicket, but his 19-ball 29, worth a 37-ball 54-run stand with Parag, has shown RR the way forward.

RR didn’t stop thereafter. Next came a 23-ball, 52-run partnership between Parag and Dhruv Jurel (20, 12b, three 4s), who perished attempting an ambitious deflection under pressure to accelerate. The wicketkeeper-batter, who had impressed all on his India debut in the recently concluded Test series against England, paddled the Nortje delivery onto the timber from wide outside the off stump. That shot was the need of the hour and RR could afford it tactically.

The last two overs were absolute carnage by Parag. Simron Hetmyer on the other end made the most of the limited opportunities he had for his 7-ball 14*, coming with a four and a six.

It was the last over DC and Nortje will like to forget soon. The chronology of the six balls read 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1 as Parag returned unconquered with a towering knock of 84 (45b, seven 4s, six 6s), no matter if the foundation was laid in the ruins of RR top order.

But for the third over, worth 14 runs, when Sanju Samson picked Mukesh Kumar for three successive boundaries, RR were not allowed to capitalise from the power play. Six of the first eight overs did not have a single boundary. And the wickets Yashasvi Jaiswal (5), Samson (15) and Jos Buttler (11) shifted the batting team's priority from the T20 rapidfire to stabilise the innings with caution, until Ashwin changed the gear and shifted the control of the proceedings towards the home team.

The Riyan Parag innings and his three vital partnerships with Ashwin, Jurel and Hetmyer propelled RR from a 58/3 at the halfway stage to 185/5 at the close of innings. The scale had tilted towards Sanju Samson’s team before DC began their chase.