The Delhi Daredevils registered their third win in this year’s IPL with a 4-run victory over the Rajasthan Royals, in a game which was shortened by rain.
The start of the game was initially delayed and the game eventually started with each team having 18 overs to play. After the first innings, the rain further delayed the start of the second half and the game was reduced to 12 overs with the Duckworth Lewis method being used to revise the existing target of 197 set by the Delhi Daredevils, to 151.
Having been put into bat by Ajinkya Rahane, the Delhi Daredevils batsmen came into their own despite losing New Zealand opener Colin Munro off the fourth ball of the innings for a duck.
Prithvi Shaw along with skipper Shreyas Iyer laid a solid platform for Delhi with a 73-run partnership. When Prithvi was dismissed for 47, Rishab Pant came out and played the most decisive innings in the match. He scored a magnificent 69 from just 29 balls at a strike rate of 237.93. He was well supported by Shreyas Iyer who finished with 50, and a late cameo of 17 from 6 balls by Vijay Shankar.
Rishab Pant, who was named Man of the Match, also received the Orange Cap for his performance. In the post-match presentation, he said, “It's been going great but I'm just happy with the win for my team. If anyone is retained, it doesn't matter, you have to just perform for your team. I play the paddle well, so since people are bowling me there, I'm pulling some tricks. As Daredevils, we're just being positive. We know if we lose, we're out, so being positive for every match. The intent is same in every game, but the small things were important which got us the win tonight."
Chasing a daunting total of 151 from just 12 overs, Rajasthan got off to a flyer with an opening partnership of 82 from the first 40 balls in the innings. Jos Buttler scored 67 of those runs in just 26 balls and for a while, it looked like he would guide his team to a famous victory, but when Amit Mishra deceived Buttler with his flight, it brought Delhi back in the hunt.
Requiring 51 to win from the final 3 overs, D’Arcy Short, who had struggled throughout the innings, hit Glen Maxwell for 3 consecutive sixes before getting out off the fourth ball for 44 from 25 balls.
Trent Boult was given the duty of defending 15 runs in the final over. After a solid first four deliveries which saw only 5 runs conceded, Krishnappa Gowtham struck a boundary to take the game down to the last ball with Rajasthan requiring 6. Boult was able to hold his nerve as he only conceded a single to give Delhi its second win in 3 games.
Boult finished with 2 for 26 in his 3 overs. This performance gave him the purple cap with his tally at 12. After the game he said, “Was good to test my skillset against quality players. A win's nice. We had to play good cricket, and we're taking it game by game. Now to test ourselves in Hyderabad."