Rajasthan beat Delhi by 10 runs through the D/L method to make their first IPL match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in five years memorable on Wednesday. RR's first win in two matches took them to fifth position in the standings - an improvement of three places.
Chasing a revised target of 71 in six overs after a long rain interruption, Delhi started nightmarishly and lost Colin Munro off the first ball - runout without facing a delivery. DD's chase heavily depended on Glenn Maxwell who had joined the team ahead of this game. Coming from fellow Australian Aaron Finch's wedding festivities, Maxwell (17 off 12 balls) looked terribly out of touch and that pretty much ended Delhi's hopes. Rishabh Pant (20 off 14 balls) and Chris Morris (17* off 7 balls) tried their best but it wasn't enough as DD suffered their second successive defeat to find themselves at the bottom of the standings.
TEAM M W L T P NRR
CSK 2 2 0 0 4 0.254
SRH 1 1 0 0 2 1.771
KXIP 1 1 0 0 2 0.567
KKR 2 1 1 0 2 0.195
RR 2 1 1 0 2 -1.065
MI 1 0 1 0 0 -0.271
RCB 1 0 1 0 0 -0.598
DD 2 0 2 0 0 -0.851
Ben Laughlin (2-0-20-2), Jaydev Unadkat (2-0-24-1), Krishnappa Gowtham (1-0-10-0), Dhawal Kulkarni (1-0-4-0) all played their part in restricting Delhi to 60/4.
Earlier, Rajasthan were 153 for 5 in 17.5 overs when the heavens opened to halt the proceedings and almost two and a half hours passed before the rain relented and play could resume.
There was no surprise when Delhi captain Gautam Gambhir put Ajinkya Rahane and Co. into bat on a green wicket. D'Arcy Short (6) fell short of the crease after a communication failure with Rahane. Short, after tapping the ball through midwicket, didn't appear keen on a double but had to run at Rahane's insistence. Vijay Shankar ran in from deep mid-wicket and threw the stumps down at the striker's end. This was the Aussie's second successive run-out having suffered the same fate against SRH in Hyderabad on Monday.
Trent Boult then produced a ripper to get rid of Ben Stokes who could do nothing but edge through to wicketkeeper Pant. Unperturbed, Rajasthan No.4 Sanju Samson counter-attacked and unleashed some very attractive shots. The 62-run partnership between Samson and Rahane was taking them to a big total when Shahbaz Nadeem cleaned up the former for 37. Not long after, Rahane was also sent back by Nadeem for 45, bringing Delhi back into the contest.
Mohammed Shami then furthered Delhi's cause with the wicket of the dangerous Jos Buttler for 29. Shortly after, the rain came and ensured Rajasthan didn't bat again.
Following the defeat, Delhi travel to Mumbai on Saturday, while Rajasthan travel to Bangalore on Sunday.
