Dubai, Oct 15: Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer scored their respective half-century to guide Delhi Capitals to a 13-run win over Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here on Wednesday.
Dhawan and Iyer played a knock of 57 and 53 runs respectively before bowlers sealed the win for Delhi Capitals. With this win, Delhi Capitals have also claimed the top spot on the points table with 12 points from eight matches.
Chasing a target of 162 runs, Rajasthan Royals got off to a good start as openers Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes struck regular boundaries. Buttler played a quick knock of 22 runs from just nine deliveries before Anrich Nortje bowled him in the third over.
Steve Smith (1) failed to impress as he was caught and bowled by Ravichandran Ashwin in the next over. Sanju Samson then joined Stokes out on the field.
The duo formed a 46-run partnership before Stokes was sent back to the pavilion by Tushar Deshpande in the 11th over. Stokes played a knock of 41 runs from 35 deliveries.
The fall of wickets did not stop and Samson (25) and Riyan Parag (1) also got out in a quick succession, which reduced Rajasthan Royals to 110/5.
Robin Uthappa and Rahul Tewatia then took the field and played cautiously. However, Nortje dismissed Uthappa in the 18th over to end the batsman's 32-run innings. The match came to a point when Rajasthan Royals needed 25 runs from the last two overs with Tewatia and Jofra Archer on the field.
Kagiso Rabada bowled an amazing 19th over as the pacer took the wicket of Archer and conceded just three runs from the over. Deshpande bowled the last over and Rajasthan Royals easily registered a win.
Earlier, an all-round bowling performance by Rajasthan Royals' bowlers in the death overs restricted Delhi Capitals to 161/7. Delhi Capitals collapsed from 132/3 to 161/7 in four overs.
Opting to bat first, Delhi Capitals got off to the worst possible start as Jofra Archer dismissed opening batsman Prithvi Shaw on a golden duck. In the third over, Archer again wreaked havoc as Ajinkya Rahane chipped a length ball to Robin Uthappa at mid-on.
Delhi Capitals skipper, Iyer, then joined Dhawan in the middle and the duo stitched an 85-run stand to revive Delhi Capitals' hope in the match.
Dhawan smashed his 39th half-century in IPL. His knock was studded with six fours and two glorious sixes. Meanwhile, Shreyas played second fiddle and scored runs at a run a ball.
Shreyas Gopal dismissed rampant Dhawan in the 12th over as Royals tried to bounce back in the game.
Shreyas too completed the half-century after accelerating in the latter part of his innings. He scored 53 runs in 43 balls before getting out in the 16th over.
The wicket of Shreyas reduced the scoring rate as Delhi Capitals scored just three and five runs in the 16th and 18th over respectively. In the end, the Royals restricted Delhi Capitals to 161/7 on the back of some fine death over bowling.
Brief Score: Delhi Capitals 161/7 [Shikhar Dhawan 57(33), Shreyas Iyer 53(43), Jofra Archer 3-20] defeated Rajasthan Royals 148/8 [Ben Stokes 41 (35), Robin Uthappa 32 (27), Anrich Nortje 2-33] by 13 runs.
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