Delhi Capitals beat Rajasthan Royals by 46 runs to win three in a row

Rajasthan Royals’ unbeaten record at Sharjah Cricket Ground comes to an end as Delhi Capitals beat the former by 46 runs on Friday. Steve Smith and Co. put on a good performance with the ball and restricted a formidable batting unit of Delhi Capitals to 186. Both Jofra Archer and Varun Aaron started off with a lot of intent. Jofra Archer was once again their star man.

The top three batsmen, Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan and Shreyas Iyer went back to the pavilion inside first six overs, courtesy a brilliant spell by Jofra. Skipper Iyer and Rishabh Pant both got run-out as DC were in all sorts of trouble at 79 for 4 after first 10 overs.

In-form Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer led Delhi Capitals’ recovery and formed a valuable 30-run partnership before Stoinis got after making 39 off 30 balls.

Rajasthan, though, were still in complete control of the game. However, Hetmyer’s terrific knock of 45 runs off 24 balls meant Delhi Capitals went past the 180-run mark in the end. Delhi Capitals posted a 184 in 20 overs in the first innings. Considering the shorter boundaries of Sharjah, it wasn’t a big enough total defend.

Delhi Capitals boasts of one of the best bowling line-ups this season and they proved that one more time. Kagiso Rabada had a bad day with the ball, however, the franchise doesn’t have just one bowler to rely on every time.

Anrich Nortje bowled a great first over while bowling all the hard lengths. Young Yashasvi Jaiswal found it too hard facing balls at that pace. Ravi Ashwin bowled the third over of the innings and got the crucial wicket of Jos Buttler. Jaiswal, on the other hand, struggled to score boundaries. Jaiswal’s struggle in the middle was putting pressure on Smith on the other end. In a bid to up the ante, Smith too went shortly, which was followed by another disappointing performance from Sanju Samson.

Rajasthan Royals soon so themselves reeling at 72 for 3 in 11 overs. All their three star-players went back without making much of a contribution and it was just a formality after that. A decent cameo from Rahul Tewatia took past 130-mark. Rajasthan Royals, in the end, crumbled for 138 in 19.4 overs, thereby handing a 46-run victory to Delhi Capitals.