On a night that their big three batters managed 31 off 37 between them, Rajasthan Royals overcame a big conditions handicap through what many feel is the coming of age of Riyan Parag. When the ball seamed and swung, accounting for Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Jos Buttler, Riyan Parag played watchfully but turned 16 off 20 into a match-winning 84 off 45.
Despite the Riyan Parag assault, Delhi Capitals would have felt confident they could chase down 186 what with the dew and reduced seam movement on offer, but Nandre Burger, Royals’ Impact Player, made early dents with the ball, Yuzvendra Chahal picked wickets, and Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma closed out superbly with Yorkers and wide lines.
In a see-saw encounter, Rajasthan Royals prevailed over a fighting Delhi Capitals after a collective bowling effort backed up Riyan Parag’s heroics with the bat. It gave Royals their second win on the trot, while Rishabh Pant’s men were condemned with another bitter pill to swallow in their second outing of IPL 2024.
Pitch and Toss
It’s a fresh surface tonight. 67m square boundaries on both sides and a 76m straight boundary. We’re playing on pitch number 5 today, it is absolutely rock hard, but there are some cracks which move as you press. It means that the bounce could be low with the new ball, it means the tactics could be similar to that of the last game. It wouldn’t be surprising that the Royals could be wanting to bat first again today, reckon Simon Katich and Samuel Badree, in their pitch report
Delhi Capitals won the toss and elected to bowl first . Two changes were made into the squad as Ishant Sharma and Shai Hope made way for Anrich Nortje and Mukesh Kumar with Abhishek Porel as impact sub.
Rajasthan Royals played with the same 11 from first match with Nandre Burger as their impact sub.
A Royal stutter at the start
The pitch at the Sawai Man Singh stadium did not offer the best chance for stroke-play early on. It required the batters spending some time on it to adjust to the slight slowness available. This allowed Delhi Capitals to exploit the conditions to their advantage. First up, Mukesh Kumar castled Yashasvi Jaiswal from round the wicket.
Sanju Samson could not have an impact either as Khaleel Ahmed had him caught behind from round the wicket. Soon after, Jos Buttler was trapped LBW by Kuldeep, who was confident enough to push it through a review. At 36/3, in the 8th over the Royals innings was seemingly going nowhere.
DC’s new-ball bowlers might not have the extreme pace, but Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed maximized the early seam movement by bowling areas where they kept attacking the stumps. Even though RR looked to weather the storm, they couldn’t afford to do so for too long lest they batted themselves out of the game.
Mukesh bowled Jaiswal, Khaleel drew an edge from Samson during his third over in the powerplay, and Kuldeep Yadav trapped Buttler lbw on the reverse-sweep. At 36 for 3 in the eighth over, it could be argued decisive damage had been caused already.
Ravichandran Ashwin the batter takes flight and provide impetus to RR innings.
The situation called for some nous and Rajasthan gambled with R Ashwin at No. 5. They’ve not been shy to use such a tactic before as it allowed the big-hitters to come down the innings with more license to break free. But Riyan Parag and Ashwin were smart together in stitching a neat partnership worth 54.
Ashwin was not averse to sweeping Kuldeep Yadav and even managed a couple of neat pulls against Anrich Nortje. His 19-ball 29 put the innings back on course and gave Riyan Parag, who had been circumspect until then with a run-a-ball 26, a springboard to launch ahead.
Even as Riyan Parag struggled to reach even a run a ball in the first half of his innings, R Ashwin was promoted and he hit three sixes. The idea probably was to delay the introduction of Shimron Hetmyer and, in the process, make sure they didn’t use their Impact substitution on a batter. Not only did Ashwin hold out until the ideal point of entry for the bigger hitters, he hit DC’s best bowlers on paper, Kuldeep and Anrich Nortje, for three sixes. These blows took RR’s run rate past six for the first time. In the 11th over of the innings.
Riyan Parag takes centerstage and hammers Anrich Nortje for 25 runs to propel RR to 186 for 5
As the innings drew towards a close, Riyan Parag had a great sense of how it was playing and what the bowlers were offering. He began to unleash a series of confident shots to up the ante. First Khaleel Ahmed, who had been on the mark up until then, was taken down in his final over as Riyan Parag went 6, 4, 4 as the pacer attempted wide yorkers. Mukesh Kumar erred on the fuller side and was promptly put away as Riyan Parag raced to a fifty. But the icing on the cake came in the final over of the innings bowled by Nortje.
It turned out to be a takedown for the ages as Nortje steamed in quick but was dispatched to the boundary as quickly. Riyan Parag was lucky that he edged a couple with third man up, but the risk was on as Nortje challenged him to clear the square boundaries with his wide lines. Riyan Parag was up for that challenge when it was banged in short as well and pulled him for a couple of sixes. The final over read 4, 4, 6 , 4 , 6, 1 as Riyan Parag raced away to an unbeaten 84 and propelled RR to a competitive total.
Playing on painkillers and flu medication after three days of illness, Riyan Parag took over after Ashwin got out. The switch up started with a pulled six off Kuldeep in the 13th over, continued with 6,4 and 4 in the 15th to somewhat damage Khaleel’s figures, and ended with a glorious takedown of Nortje in the 20th over, which went for two sixes and 25 runs in all. Hetmyer, who started his innings in the 18th over, ended with an unbeaten 14 off seven as RR finshed their 20 overs with 186 runs for 5 wickets.
A topsy-turvy start to the DC chase
Delhi Capitals were desperate for a good start to the chase and they found that with an imposing Mitchell Marsh muscling some early boundaries. He hit five fours in his 23 but was soon bowled by an chopping on an incoming delivery from Nandre Burger. One brought two as Burger then had Ricky Bhui gloving a sharp short ball to the wicket-keeper. At 30/2, DC’s chase was in danger of a short circuit.
It was clear RR were going lengths to get the services of Burger over Powell. The Parag assault in the final third of the innings helped them make their minds up. And Burger immediately vindicated the decision by getting rid of the marauding Mitchell Marsh and Ricky Bhui in the fourth over. On a night that Trent Boult went wicketless, forget taking his usual first-over wicket, Burger made sure RR caused the early damage. Marsh was bowled through swing at high space, and Bhui gloved a bouncer.
A repair job as Yuzvendra Chahal and co. applies pressure on DC batters
The experienced pair of David Warner and Rishabh Pant now joined hands as they set about playing with a mixture of caution and aggression. Together they put on a rather patient 67 off 47 balls. While it did not do much in terms of taking the required run-rate down, it allowed them a base to launch a final counterattack from. Even as the duo fell in quick succession, and Yuzvendra Chahal struck twice, DC found more starts at the back-end.
The two big left-arm seamers took on the challenge of bowling inside the powerplay, which also probably meant less pressure on the remaining four bowlers to bowl 14 between them.
David Warner looked threatening, especially with a known asking rate and the conditions generally improving for batting, but then Avesh got him out with a full and wide ball. Pundits have already pointed out his open front foot has opened up the off side on straight balls but has also taken him far away from the ball when it is bowled wide. It seemed here that he took out a fishing pole to reach this one, and the edge flew to Sandeep at short third.
Yuzvendra Chahal then took out two left-hand batters, Rishabh Pant and Ishan Porel. Ashwin could have ended the match in the 17th over had Boult taken the straightforward catch from Tristan Stubbs, but the reprieved batter made it interesting with three sixes and a four off the next six balls that he faced.
Tristan Stubbs checks in but Avesh Khan’s disciplined 20th over guides RR to victory
Tristan Stubbs had a moment of luck when he was put down by Trent Boult off R Ashwin. This put him on course for a boundary-filled counterattack. Ashwin was put over the fence a couple of times, while Sandeep Sharma’s slower balls were clobbered with immense power. As Axar Patel too chipped in with a useful boundary, the equation tapered down to 17 needed off the final over. At this point, Avesh Khan stepped up to bowl a boundary-less over against the well-set batters as he executed his plans to perfection.
22 off 10 is the closest the equation would get for them as Sandeep and Avesh nailed their Yorkers and kept making the batters hit into the bigger boundary.
Despite the Parag assault, Delhi Capitals would have felt confident they could chase down 186 what with the dew and reduced seam movement on offer, but Nandre Burger, Royals’ Impact Player, made early dents with the ball, Yuzvendra Chahal picked wickets, and Avesh Khan and Sandeep Sharma closed out superbly with Yorkers and wide lines.
Presentations and Road Ahead.
Rishabh Pant the loosing DC captain said :
“Definitely disappointed. Best thing we can do from this is learn from it. The bowlers did really well till 15-16 overs, batters sometimes go on at the death and score quickly, that happened in this game,”
“Marsh and Warner gave a good start, but we lost a few wickets in the middle overs and in the end we had too many runs to cover up. There are other options, we wanted Nortje to bowl at the death and sometimes you can go for runs, hopefully we can do better in the next match,”
Sanju Samson the winning RR captain said :
“It was a bit of a roller-coaster. The way we started the first 10 overs, OK, Rovman get ready you may have to bat today. But the way the batters took the responsibility it was fantastic. Absolutely he did. The game is changing and we all have to be flexible. It was earlier about 11 players, now it’s about 15 players. Sanga and I had 4-5 chats around the 13th-17th over. But what Riyan did in that 20th over made it easy,”
“It is all about gauging in which zone they are, you have to look at that and take the decision accordingly. Sandy was calm and Avesh as well and I took that call. Riyan has been a big name for the last 3-4 years, everywhere I go, in Kerala they ask me, when is he going to come good? touchwood, this is the season. He has to keep his head down and has a lot to give to Indian cricket,”
Riyan Parag was player of the match for his 84 runs said :
“[emotions] They are settled, mom is here, she has seen the struggle, the last 3-4 years. I know what my opinion is about myself. That does not change regardless of whether I get a zero or not. That’s a lot to do with the type of season as well, I had a great domestic season and that helps,”
“Someone in the top four has to play the 20 overs, the wicket was keeping low and stopping, in the first game Sanju bhaiya did it. I have worked very hard, the last 3 days I was in bed, I was on painkillers, I just got up today and I’m very happy,”
9 games this season and all 9 have been won by the home side. The trend continues. Earlier, Marsh and Warner got off to a fast start before the former was bowled by Burger who took Bhui as well in the same over. Pant and Warner strung a stand after that but the pace was slow. Warner fell for 49 and Pant soon after.
The Impact Player Porel did not contribute much and even though Tristan Stubbs tried some late heroics, Sandeep Sharma and Avesh Khan kept their nerves to take RR home. The wicket got slower as the game went on and RR were well-led by Samson who handled his bowling changes nicely. Two each for Burger and Chahal and fine death bowling from Sandeep and Avesh.
Delhi Capitals have a couple of days gap before they take on Chennai Super Kings in their adopted home of Vizag on March 31. The following day, Rajasthan Royals play their first away game of the season as they travel to Mumbai.