Delhi Daredevils held on for a four-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Feroz Shah Kotla Ground. A rain delay meant each innings was reduced to 18 overs as the hosts were put into bat.
Prithvi Shaw, Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer were on song and fired Delhi to 196/6 in 17.1 overs before rain intervened again.
Rajasthan’s innings was reduced to 12 overs and the target to 151 in accordance with the Duckworth-Lewis method. Jos Buttler’s quick-fire 67 and D’Arcy Short’s 44 took the chase down to the wire, but Delhi were able to restrict their opponents.
YOUNG GUNS FIRING
Coming into this fixture rooted to the bottom of the table, there was little optimism to derive from Delhi’s disappointing start to the season. A roster that boasts some fine young talent though was always a silver lining and against Rajasthan, it cast its brightest gleam yet over what’s been a treacherous 2018 campaign.
The 18-year-old Shaw opened the innings and batted superbly to race to 47 off just 25 balls before being undone by a slower delivery, scooping an easy catch back to Shreyas Gopal at the bowler’s end. To the Royals’ dismay, the carnage was only just getting underway.
Pant, 20, came along and upstaged his team-mate, smashing five sixes and seven boundaries in his 29-ball knock of 69. Meanwhile, Iyer played another innings befitting of a captain, ably supporting the other two in a composed 50 off 35 balls.
Between the three of them, the Daredevils were able to storm to a score of 172 in only the 15th over. The youngsters have impressed this season.
Pant now leads the scoring charts with 375 runs to his name at an average of 41.66 while Iyer has 307 runs, boasting an average of 51.16. Shaw has 140 runs in four innings at an average of 35.
Prithvi Shaw, Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant - the first instance of 3 players aged 23 or less have scored 40+ in the same innings in IPL. #DDvRR
— Bharath Seervi (@SeerviBharath) May 2, 2018
BUTTLER’S PROMOTION
With the Rajasthan innings reduced to 12 overs with a target of 151 to chase, the asking run rate of 12.58 was a daunting one.
But a change in the batting order made a huge difference.
Buttler opened the innings alongside D’Arcy Short and went about putting the Royals on course to achieve their target. While the Australian at the other end struggled to get going before finally accelerating, Buttler wasted no time. ]
He was ruthless with Avesh Khan bearing the brunt of his wrath, being dispatched for 23 runs in his first over, courtesy of the Englishman’s brute force.
Buttler raised his half-century in just 18 balls. He was finally dismissed by Amit Mishra as he was stumped following a stunning innings of 67 in 27 balls that featured seven sixes and four boundaries.
The move to promote him up the batting line-up certainly paid dividends and while it didn’t secure the win for the visitors, there’s no doubt Buttler sent them on their way and gave them a real chance.
DELHI CATCH A BREAK
After the kind of performance they put in for the first innings, losing the game from there may have had a demoralising effect on the side from which they would’ve struggled to recover.
Iyer has shone as captain, leading by example as well. However, Delhi were almost undone by a couple of expensive overs. Avesh was hit for 23 in his first while Short went after Glenn Maxwell as the 10th over yielded 21 runs.
Rajasthan folded under the pressure at the death and the hosts were able to completed a deserved victory. The result means they move off the bottom of the table and into sixth, leapfrogging the Royals who have a game in hand.
