It was another story of the batting unit failing to rise to the occasion for Rajasthan Royals as they lost to Delhi Capitals by 33 runs in their Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Saturday.
Skipper Sanju Samson played a lone hand of unbeaten 70, but it wasn't enough on the night as none of the other batsmen managed to hang in with the RR captain. In fact, only Mahipal Lomror managed to cross double figures (19) as the Rajasthan batsmen left a lot to be desired.
For DC, it was once again a clinical display from the bowlers led by Anrich Nortje (2/18). All the bowlers pitched in as R Ashwin also picked his 250th T20 wicket on the day as the DC unit once again showed they are one of the teams to beat in the 14th edition of the league.
Earlier, Shreyas Iyer fought a lone battle at the top before Shimron Hetmyer hit a quickfire 28 to help Delhi Capitals reach a respectable 154/6 in their 20 overs.
Iyer hit a 32-ball 43 before he was dismissed against the run of play by Rahul Tewatia to get Rajasthan right back into the game. In fact, at one stage it looked like Delhi was aiming for a score in the range of 180 with skipper Rishabh Pant and Iyer looking good in the middle. But Mustafizur Rahman broke the 62-run stand when he sent back Pant for 24. And that saw the RR bowlers claw their way back into the game.
Put in to bat, DC didn't really get off to the start they would have liked as they lost opener Shikhar Dhawan (8) in 4th over. In the very next over, DC lost their second wicket in the form of Prithvi Shaw (10) -- caught by Liam Livingstone off Chetan Sakariya's bowling.
With both openers back in the dugout inside the first five overs, it was a case of rebuilding the innings from the word go for DC. While the first five overs saw just one boundary being scored, Pant and Iyer slowly started to get the scoring board moving.
But Pant's dismissal in the 12th over once again pegged DC back and it was finally left to Hetmyer, Lalit Yadav and Axar Patel to try and stretch the score over the 150-run mark. For RR, while Mustafizur finished with figures of 2/22, Chetan Sakariya took two wickets and gave away 33 runs.
Brief Scores: DC: 154/6 (Shreyas Iyer 43; Mustafizur Rahman 2/22) vs RR 121/6 (Sanju Samson 70*; Anrich Nortje 2/18).
( With inputs from ANI )
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