Delhi Daredevils hosted Rajasthan Royals in the 32nd match of the IPL 2018 at the Feroz Shah Kotla. The match was under threat of rain and unfortunately, was affected by it.
The first bout of rain reduced the match to 18 overs per side. Ajinkya Rahane had won the toss and decided to chase first. D'Arcy Short and Shreyas Gopal come in for Ish Sodhi and Mahipal Lomror for Rajasthan. Delhi, on the other hand, picked Shahbaz Nadeem in for Rahul Tewatia.
Colin Munro was dismissed by Dhawal Kulkarni in the first over for a golden duck. But Shaw (47 off 25 balls; 4x4s, 4x6s) and Shreyas Iyer (50 off 35 balls; 3x4s, 3x6s) added 73 runs for the second wicket. After Shaw was dismissed by Gopal, Pant joined Iyer and it was carnage from the duo. Pant hit 69 off 29 balls with 7 fours and 5 sixes, adding 92 runs for the 3rd wicket with Iyer.
DD were 196/6 in the last over, when rain poured in with 5 balls to go. Jaydev Unadkat picked 3/46, while Archer, Kulkarni and Gopal picked one wicket each.
RR got a revised target of 151 in 12 overs to go and D’Arcy Short was joined by Jos Buttler at the top and the duo took the DD bowlers to the cleaners. However, Short couldn’t time his shots at all and all the responsibility of scoring runs fell on Buttler, who scored a 50 off 18 balls and was ultimately stumped off Amit Mishra for 67 off 26 balls with 7 sixes and 4 fours.
In the end, the asking rate became too much for Rajasthan batsmen’s liking and Samson (3) and Stokes (1) perished trying to up the ante for RR. Boult picked both the wickets and earned the Purple cap for most wickets in the tournament.
Short tried his best, hitting Maxwell for three consecutive sixes, but then was dismissed by Maxwell for 44 off 25 balls with 4 sixes and 2 fours.
It all came down to 15 runs off the last over bowled by Boult and he defended the score to give DD a win by 4 runs (D/L method)
BRIEF SCORES:
DD 196/6 IN 17.1 overs (R PANT 69; J UNADKAT 3/46) beat RR 146/5 (J BUTTLER 67; T BOULT 2/26) by 4 runs (D/L method)
