Parag excels as resurgent Royals plunder Capitals
Chasing 186, Mitchell Marsh thumped five boundaries, before being castled through the gate by a 146kph delivery from Burger in the fourth over
Yuzvendra Chahal and Nandre Burger picked two wickets each while Sandeep Sharma and Avesh Khan produced some excellent death bowling as Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Capitals by 12 runs to continue the trend of home teams winning in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 so far at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium on Thursday.
Ater Riyan Parag enthralled the home fans by smashing an eye-catchy unbeaten 84 off just 45 deliveries to help RR make a competitive 185/5, captain Sanju Samson made his bowling changes spot-on and the bowlers didn’t let him down, especially in the death overs, by restricting DC to 173/5.
Chasing 186, Mitchell Marsh thumped five boundaries, before being castled through the gate by a 146kph delivery from Burger in the fourth over. Ater Ricky Bhui survived a lbw call, Burger bounced out the bater with a fiery bouncer which got big on him and lobbed off the front glove to give wicketkeeper Sanju Samson an easy catch.
David Warner cut loose by scooping and loting Trent Boult for a brace of sixes, before taking a four and six off Burger as DC ended Power-play at 59/2. Warner continued to be DC’S aggressor, driving and pulling to collect boundaries, apart from surviving a run-out chance in the ninth over.
From the other end, Rishabh Pant took his time to get going but used his hands well to steer and cut for two boundaries, before a slog-sweep against Chahal was palmed over by deep midwicket to give him his first six post return to the competitive game.
The 67-run partnership off 46 balls for the third wicket ended when Warner flashed hard at an
Avesh delivery and Sandeep, at short third man, moved to his right to complete a brilliant catch.
In a bid to bring the required run rate down, Pant looked to cut a wide delivery from Chahal but edged behind to Samson. Impact Player Abishek Porel was next to fall, holing out to long-off to become Chahal’s second scalp.
Tristan Stubbs, who hit a four previously off Sandeep, was lucky to be dropped at deep mid-wicket by Boult off Ashwin. To rub salt in the wound, Stubbs pulled and loted cleanly against the off spinner for a brace of sixes to keep DC in the hunt.
Ater Axar Patel steered Avesh for four, Stubbs smacked six and four off Sandeep, who found his radar later in the over, to make the equation as 17 runs needed off the final over for victory. But Avesh kept his calm to give away only four runs in the last over to seal RR’S second successive win in the competition.
Meanwhile, Namibia’s fast-bowling all-rounder David Wiese, who was a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in IPL 2023, has claimed that some overseas players were frustrated over head coach Chandrakant Pandit’s militant style of coaching in the tournament. In that season, KKR finished in seventh place in the points table and failed to enter the knockouts.
“Certain issues were going on behind the scenes in the team. Guys weren’t happy with certain things that were going on, and a lot of the time, it was a tough changing room.
“There was a new coach coming in, and he liked to do things a certain way, but that didn’t sit well with the players.
“It caused a litle bit of tension in the changing room. Guys were frustrated, there was a lot that changed over the last couple of years (when Mccullum was around), and the new coach brought in some new things that he thought would bring success to us. He (Pandit) is known in India as a very militant type of coach. He is very strict, very disciplinarian that type of stuff.
“Sometimes in franchise cricket, when you have overseas guys, who’ve played all over the world, they don’t need anyone coming and telling them how they need to behave, what they need to wear, and what they need to do the whole time.
“I was chill with it, but there were players more stubborn than me. So, that was tough,” said Wiese in an episode of ‘Hitman for Hire: A Year in the Life of a Franchise Cricketer’ podcast.
Wiese, who made three IPL appearances for KKR in IPL 2023, the same year when Pandit was brought on as the head coach following Brendon Mccullum’s departure, admited to being frustrated over not geting enough chances to be in the playing eleven in that season.
“That frustration was more because of the fact that I played those games. I didn’t really get the opportunity to do much. I did hit a couple of sixes but didn’t really get the opportunity to showcase my skills there, and never got picked again in the team that was struggling with players.”