IPL 2020, Match 23 – Rajasthan Royals v Delhi Capitals – DC defend 185 to claim 5th win of the season

A spectacular performance from the Delhi Capitals (DC) bowlers tonight, defending a target of 185 against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium with ease handed the Delhi Capitals yet another win in this year’s Indian Premier League.

Batting first, DC lost opener Shikhar Dhawan early on, caught by Jaiswal at mid-wicket after the opener was rushed into a shot. They then lost the in-form Prithvi Shaw in the 4th over, who fell victim to a rising short ball from Jofra Archer as well; trying to pull the England pacer away, he could only manage to send the ball high up, and Archer completed the catch himself.

Two of the most stupid run outs followed from the Delhi Capitals batsmen, and Rishabh Pant was involved in both of them. Iyer pushed the penultimate delivery from Andrew Tye to mid-off and set off; Pant took a few steps and then decided to send his captain back. Iyer did turn back from halfway down, but was comprehensively beaten by a brilliant direct-hit from Yashasvi Jaiswal.

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If the run out mentioned above sounded bad, the one that followed would be considered sacrilege even at club Cricket level. Marcus Stoinis, who had got off to a decent start having walked in after Iyer’s wicket, tapped the ball towards mid-wicket and took a couple of steps forward with the momentum of the shot. Pant, assuming that his partner wanted a single, daftly jogged down the pitch only to be loudly sent back and turned around to find that the bails had been taken off with him 6 yards away from safety.

Stoinis was then joined by Shimron Hetmyer, and the duo looked to play themselves in on what seemed like a relatively slower wicket compared to the last couple of matches. Hetmyer then smashed his first six off Tye to break the shackles, but he then lost his partner, Stoinis in the next over to a very loose shot off Tewatia, who had an excellent game with the ball.

Hetmyer then went on the attack which lasted for about a couple of overs, but was very effective in nature. By the time he was dismissed by Kartik Tyagi for 45, DC were a run short of 150 with three overs left.

Axar Patel then showed a brief exhibition of his batting prowess in the death overs, helping DC get to 181 with an over left before being dismissed in the penultimate over. DC ended with 184 on the board, well short of the par score at this venue in this year’s IPL.

Jos Buttler helped RR get off to the perfect start to the chase, smashing a couple of boundaries in the first over from Rabada past fine leg and square leg. But his optimistic stay in the middle came to a swift end when he mistimed a sweep shot off his ‘nemesis’ Ravichandran Ashwin to square leg, where Shikhar Dhawan completed an excellent catch. Another expensive over from Rabada followed due to new man Steven Smith flicking and paddling the South African pacer for a six and a four.

Smith was dismissed when he tried to repeat the same shot that brought him his first and only over-boundary off Nortje in the 9th over, and was brilliantly pouched by Hetmyer at cow corner. Sanju Samson and Mahipal Lomror then followed a few balls later to horrendous shots, and then 19-year-old Yashasvi Jaiswal, who was just beginning to play catch up with the required run rate having got off to a very slow start, ended up being bowled off his pads by Stoinis to signal the end of an agonizing night for him with bat in hand.

With all of their top-order batsmen back in the dugout, there was a thin ray of hope within the RR camp and supporters that Rahul Tewatia would put in yet another heroic effort in with the support of Andrew Tye and the rest of the RR tail and chase down 103 off 47 deliveries, but, as one of our folks mentioned on Twitter, there is a reason why that innings against KXIP was termed as ‘once in a lifetime’. There is a major difference in facing the likes of Sheldon Cottrell and Mohammed Shami on an off-day and on a road of a pitch, compared to Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje in full flight.

Axar and Harshal Patel, too, slipped in economical overs in between to ensure that the South African duo had absolutely no pressure in closing out the game. Tewatia did end up batting until the last over, trying to collect as many runs as possible, before being cleaned up by Rabada for a 29-ball 38, and three balls later, the dismissal of last man Kartik Tyagi meant that RR were bundled out within 20 overs for 138, 47 runs short of the target.

Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded Player Of the Match for his spell of 2/22 in his 4 overs

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RR v DC: Positives for DC from today’s game

Shimron Hetmyer playing his first innings of major significance for DC

Due to the batting performances put in by the DC top-order and Marcus Stoinis so far in this year’s IPL, the services of Shimron Hetmyer have not been required to a certain extent. He did have the opportunity to guide DC home against SRH, but he holed out to Manish Pandey off Bhuvneshwar Kumar at a crucial point of time.

With almost half the side back in the shed within the 9th over, Hetmyer had to pull out something special to get DC to a respectable position, knowing that RR were capable of chasing down massive targets. He played himself in by rotating the strike with Stoinis, and then helped a leg-stump short-pitched delivery from Andrew Tye over the square leg boundary to get going.

Marcus Stoinis’ wicket next over was not enough to deter him either, as he then went on to get six more runs off Tyagi with an identical shot to the one he played against Tye, and in the next over, he smashed the Australian for four down the ground and a mis-hit went for six over extra cover. Hetmyer slammed another couple of towering sixes in the next over off Tyagi before the rookie pacer had his revenge, having him out caught well by Tewatia at wide long-on. From 79/4, Hetmyer pulled them up to 149, meaning that there was still work to be done, which is where we move on to talk about what happened in the next couple of overs.

Axar Patel showing a glimpse of his all-round abilities with late surge

After Hetmyer’s departure, a late-order cameo was very much the demand of the hour for DC tonight, who have been heavily reliant on their top-order so far this year. A boundary from Harshal Patel helped take 10 runs off the 18th over from Jofra Archer, but a score of 159 did not seem challenging enough.

And then we got to see some fireworks from the other Patel, Axar, albeit for a very short period. Patel smashed the first ball of the penultimate over from Tye over his head for four. A wide and a couple of singles followed, after which a terrible beamer from Tye beat everyone and hit the fence. Axar then took full toll of the free-hit that followed up, clearing the boundary behind the bowler’s head this time.

He then connected with a cross-batted swipe to a short-pitched delivery well outside off-stump and was rewarded with four more runs. Axar then tried to reach a full and wide delivery well outside off and nicked behind to Buttler, which would have been called a wide if there were no bat. But the Anand-born all-rounder had played a very significant part by then, helping DC get to a fighting total and providing a tinge of assurance in terms of batting depth for the Capitals.

Bowlers putting in a great shift to defend a target under 200 at Sharjah against RR

Sharjah has been all about the batsmen in this year’s IPL so far. But today, a decent bowling performance from RR’s Rahul Tewatia, Kartik Tyagi, and Jofra Archer and then an even better performance from the Capitals’ bowlers meant that some evenness had been restored from the one-dimensioned nature of Cricket being played here. The fact that the wicket was comparatively slower to previous matches played out in favour of the bowlers as well.

It all started with a rather ordinary shot from Jos Buttler and an excellent catch from Shikhar Dhawan. Ashwin, the wicket-taker, then bowled another economical over within the powerplay to Smith and Jaiswal, giving away only 3 runs. Another couple of economical overs from Harshal Patel and Ashwin forced Steven Smith to go for the big shot off Nortje, which ultimately resulted in his dismissal.

That over from Nortje and the following one from Axar Patel fetched a combined total of 9 runs, and the asking rate had a lift-off. The fact that Samson and Lomror were coaxed into playing false shots further helped DC’s case, and the dismissal of Jaiswal off Stoinis in the 13th over meant that they had a rather simple task of containing Tewatia with over a 100 runs remaining and 8 overs to be bowled. They did the same to perfection, helping DC register yet another big win.