Hello and warmly welcome to the daily match review about every game of this year’s IPL. Today I will be writing on the match between the Rajasthan Royals and the Delhi Capitals at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. So to make things clear, the first paragraph will be a general review of the game, mainly the important highlights for people who have not watched the game. The second paragraph will be about a deeper analysis of the game, and where the game changed. So the readers who have already seen the game can skip the first paragraph and directly move onto the second paragraph. This will be the structure of every daily blog on the IPL hereafter and secondly, the website is updated and users can check the latest blog and the previous blogs on the home page itself. The blog will be present on this website at 9 pm IST every day, so keep your reminders and have a break with a nice 10-15-minute read. I hope I have clarified the major updates and let’s start with the review.
Rishabh won the toss at the SMS and chose to field first, with the Royals again going with just 7 batters. But their batting started rusty as Jaiswal, Buttler and Samson fell cheaply, leaving the Royals in dire straits. But then came Ravi Ashwin, who was promoted and played a good hand alongside Parag but once even he fell for a quick 29, the run rate was still below 7. But then the carnage started as Parag started whacking almost every ball to the boundary supported by Jurel and Hetmyer to give the Royals a massive total of 185. Now speaking of the chase, the openers started well but both Marsh and Bhui were removed by Nandre Burger in the same over. But Warner was on song and Pant played a second fiddle to him and it looked at one stage the Capitals could finally break the jinx by becoming the first away team to win a game. But both Warner and Pant were removed and the chase slowed down completely. But Tristan Stubbs, alongside Axar Patel, started giving the Capitals hope with needing 17 runs in the last over but Avesh Khan bowled brilliantly to give the Royals a hard-fought win of 12 runs, keeping the jinx alive.
Now speaking about the tactical aspects, I would first say it was a superb ploy to use Ashwin as a batter when the team needed more stability and to give good company to Parag, who had the time to settle. And even when Ash did get out when the rate was still below 7, he had done his job completely, giving a good platform to Jurel and Hetmyer. So the settled Parag then started blasting almost every ball, increasing the run rate for the Royals to about 8 an over. Here I think the Capitals missed a trick of not using the 2-bouncer rule and rather they just went for the Yorkers, in which some were full-tosses but the others were just slot balls, easy for the RR batters, especially Parag to hit and thus the last over, where Nortje, blessed with pace could have bowled more pacers and instead went for the Yorker, and the result being 25 runs off the last and giving RR 10-15 runs extra and also not impacting their plans of their impact player, because at some stage, because of their precarious start Sanju would have forced to use Rovman Powell and not use Nandre Burger but because of Ash and Parag, I would say the Royals were lucky to not comprise on their foreign bowler. Speaking of the DC innings, I would say Mitchell Marsh played a rash shot and Bhui was just done by the sheer bouncer by Burger. But still, Warner was on song but just threw his wicket and so did Pant, chasing a wide ball outside off. But huge credit to Stubbs and Axar for making a game out of that as the Capitals needed 60 off the last 4 overs and the drop catch by Boult, who I guess lost it in the lights proved to be 15-20 runs extra but that last over by Avesh Khan was absolutely pin-point, where he backed his Yorkers and his captain giving his team the victory. So overall, a chaotic game, with the batters not capitalising on the middle overs but the only difference I would say is between the last overs bowled by Nortje, who backed his Yorkers and after the first 3 balls, since he already he went for 14 runs should be gone for the short ball ploy, but ended up giving 25 runs and the last over bowled by Avesh Khan, who also backed his Yorkers and when it worked initially, stuck to it and ended up giving just 4 runs.