By Admin 
After Mitchell Starc’s four wickets, with the help of aggressive innings by Axar Patel and Ashutosh Sharma in the last overs, Delhi Capitals kept the playoff hopes alive by defeating Rajasthan Royals by five wickets in the IPL match on Sunday.
Chasing the target of 194 runs to win, Delhi needed 19 runs in the last two overs and Impact sub Ashutosh gave the team victory by hitting a six to Brijesh Sharma in the 19th over and a four and a six to Adam Milne in the first two balls of the last over. Akshar remained unbeaten on 34 runs in 18 balls and Ashutosh remained unbeaten on 18 runs in five balls.
After this win, Delhi has moved to seventh position with 12 points in 13 matches, while Royals have slipped to sixth position with 12 points in 12 matches. Chennai Super Kings also have 12 points in 12 matches but on the basis of better run rate, they are in fifth place.
Cooper Connolly created history, made ‘world record’ for most sixes in the first season of IPL
Earlier, with the help of Starc’s three wickets in four balls, Delhi made a comeback in the last overs and restricted Rajasthan Royals to 193 runs for eight wickets in the last match of this season on their home ground.
At one time it seemed that the Royals would reach around 230 but Australian seam and swing master Starc, who was playing aggressively, dismissed Royals captain Ryan Parag (51 in 26 balls) and Donovan Ferreira (0) on consecutive balls in the 15th over, while Ravi Singh (4) was also out LBW.
The score of Royals was 160 runs for two wickets after the 14th over and it seemed that the team would reach around 230 but in the last six overs only 33 runs were scored and six wickets fell. Starc took four wickets for 40 runs in four overs, Lungi Ngidi took two wickets for 24 runs in four overs and Madhav Tiwari took two wickets for 27 runs.
Starc’s fourth victim became Dasun Shanaka (10) who returned after being caught by Tristan Stubbs in the 19th over.
In reply, Delhi had a good start and KL Rahul (56 in 42 balls) along with Abhishek Porel (50 runs in 30 balls) added 105 runs in 60 balls in the first wicket partnership. Yashraj Punja gave life to Rahul in the very first over on the ball of Archer. Royals’ fielding was of very average level and along with giving away unnecessary runs in overthrows, its fielders also dropped catches.
This partnership was broken by Brijesh Sharma who had Porel caught by Donovan Ferreira in the 11th over. Rahul was bowled by Dasun Shanaka. Rahul, who has scored more than 500 runs in this season, played a very slow innings. Delhi needed 35 runs in the last three overs and Royals captain Riyag Parag gave the 18th over to Donovan Perera who gave 16 runs. David Miller and Akshar Patel hit him for sixes.
Earlier, apart from Parag, ‘Wonder Boy’ Vaibhav Suryavanshi (46 runs in 21 balls) and Dhruv Jurel (53 runs in 40 balls) played useful innings for the Royals. A large number of spectators had come to the Arun Jaitley Stadium to see Suryavanshi, who was in excellent form in this season of IPL, and this young batsman did not disappoint them.
However, Yashasvi Jaiswal faced Starc in the first over and hit him for fours at forward square leg, straight and extra cover. Suryavanshi opened the account by hitting a six on the first ball of Lungi Engidi. However, in the same over, Jaiswal (12 runs in nine balls) returned to the pavilion and was caught by Starc.
Starc was welcomed by Suryavanshi in the next over with a four over short third man. Suryavanshi, who has played more than a hundred Tests, mesmerized the audience by hitting a high six towards long leg on Starc’s 140 kmph ball with complete ease.
Tripurana Vijay, who was making his IPL debut, was handed the ball by Delhi captain Akshar Patel during the powerplay, who was put under pressure by Suryavanshi by hitting three fours and a six. However, he was lucky that Sameer Rizvi could not take his difficult catch when he was on 31 runs. Running backwards from mid-on, Rizvi changed direction to catch the ball but his guess went wrong.
From the other end, Jurel hit Mukesh Kumar for a six and completed the partnership of 50 runs in 23 balls for the second wicket. After six overs of powerplay, Royals’ score was 75 runs for one wicket.
Akshar handed the ball to Madhav Tiwari in the eighth over, who lived up to the captain’s trust and ended the innings of Suryavanshi (five fours and three sixes). David Miller took the catch of Suyavanshi.
After Suryavanshi’s departure, captain Parag took charge and hit Akshar for two sixes in the 11th over. In the last over, Tristan Stubbs caught Madhav’s ball near the boundary and the umpire declared him out but the review showed that the ball had touched the ground, hence the umpire’s decision was changed.
Parag thrashed Mukesh’s balls fiercely in the 12th over and scored 23 runs which included three sixes and a four. In this, a six over long on was of 89 meters. Parag completed his half-century in 23 balls with the help of three fours and five sixes.
After this, Starc came to bowl in the 15th over and did not allow the Royals to reach the expected score.
Also read: Vaibhav Suryavanshi created history, no one in the history of IPL could do this, defeated the big giants