DELHI CAPITALS TRIUMPH ON A DAY OF PACERS’ SHOW IN DUBAI
Rajasthan skipper Smith’s failure with the bat continues as his team loses five out of the eight matches.
It was a beautiful sight when the fast bowlers were trying to better each other. The clash between Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday had all the fast bowlers deliver their best, but Delhi walked away the winners.
The pacers’ show began with Rajasthan’s pacer Jofra Archer clean bowling Delhi Capitals opener Prithvi Shaw with the very first ball of the match. He also dismissed the one- drop batsman Ajinkya Rahane and then went on to bowl brilliantly in the death overs. As a result, Delhi could muster only 32 runs off the last five overs, which was the worst lastfive overs for any team batting first in this IPL, and they got restricted to just 161 runs.
Rajasthan began their chase with their opener Ben Stokes hitting the first ball of the innings for a boundary. While it was a great start for Rajasthan, very soon they realised that all that starts well need not end well too. Delhi pacers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje looked like they were out to prove who was faster and more deadly. Nortje went to bowl the fastest delivery in the history of the IPL clocking 156.22kmph breaking Dale Steyn’s record of 154.40kmph in the 2012 edition. The delivery with which he clean bowled Jos Buttler had a speed of 155.1kmph. Young pacer Tushar Deshpande, whom Delhi had picked to make his debut, too did well, bowling a tight last over and also taking two wickets, which included that of the top scorer Ben Stokes. On a wicket which was slowing, experienced batsmen should have applied themselves better and played stubborn knocks. In shorter formats, a captain must lead from the front with consistent scores. It is here where Delhi skipper Shreyas Iyer stands tall over Rajasthan skipper Steve
Smith. While Iyer followed up his knock of 42 against Mumbai Indians with 53 valuable runs, Smith fell for another singledigit score. After his two half- centuries in Sharjah, his scores are 3, 5, 6, 24, 1, and 5. A batsman of Smith’s calibre failing repeatedly is a serious setback, and then he is not in a position to demand consistency from his batsmen. The result is that Rajasthan’s defeats have climbed up to five from eight matches and they are now second from the bottom of the table.
Delhi needs to be lauded for continuing to keep winning despite losingmany of their players to injury. Iyer’s resource management has been brilliant.
— The writer is a senior cricket journalist who has covered 12 ICC
World Cups