David Warner remained unbeaten as Delhi Capitals (DC) defeated Rajasthan Royals (RR) in the 58th match of the IPL 2022 to stay in contention for playoffs. Warner hit 52* in 41 balls with 5 fours and 1 four as DC romped home with 8 wickets to spare.
RR had batted first after Rishabh Pant won the toss and chose that DC will bowl first at the DY Patil Stadium. R Ashwin scored his maiden T20 fifty and Devdutt Padikkal made 48 as RR posted 160/6 in 20 overs. For DC, Chetan Sakariya, Anrich Nortje and Mitchell Marsh took two wickets each.
In reply, Trent Boult struck in the first over, removing KS Bharat for a duck, but then Warner and Mitchell Marsh (89 in 62 balls with 5 fours and 7 sixes) added 144 runs for the second wicket, and then Rishabh Pant hit 2 sixes in his 13* as DC won by 8 wickets.
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Warner was stoic in his game but received a lucky break during the ninth over of the game when he missed a leg break against Yuzvendra Chahal, but the ball failed to dislodge the bails despite hitting the leg-stump.
After that Warner and Chahal were seen having a conversation with the RR tweaker giving a smile. During the post-match conversation, Warner touched upon what was said between the two.
“We've seen it plenty of times! (bails not being dislodged) I don't know what's with these stumps but they are so hard in the ground. I think those grooves are quite deep. I was saying to Yuzi there that sometimes, you can't play when there is no spin and sometimes, you can play when there is spin. So fortunately, it went my way that time!" Warner said on Star Sports.
With the win, the Delhi Capitals have 12 points with two matches remaining in the group phase. DC NRR (+0.210) is higher than the fourth-placed RCB (-0.115), giving them an advantage. Alongside DC and RCB, Sunrisers Hyderabad (10 points, three games remaining) and Punjab Kings (10 points, three games remaining) are also among the prime contenders for a top-4 spot in the IPL 2022 table.
