CHENNAI: Amid all the big scoring games, there is something in those matches where the pitch provides an equal contest between bat and ball. After witnessing high scoring matches, Dubai is giving way to matches where 160 is proving to be a par total on surfaces that begin to get slower. After Chennai Super Kings defended 167 on Tuesday, Delhi Capitals proved 161 was good enough total to win as they beat Rajasthan Royals by 13 runs on Wednesday.
Electing to bat first on Wednesday, Delhi Capitals recovered to post 161/7, but this innings could probably see a change in pattern. Teams have preferred to keep wickets and go big at the death over the last three weeks, but as pitches begin to get slower, they might be forced to abandon the plan in favour of going after the new ball.
Maybe it was what even Delhi intended to do, but the wickets of Prithvi Shaw off the first ball and Ajinkya Rahane in the third over pushed them to their back foot early on. Shikhar Dhawan (57) and captain Shreyas Iyer (53) first steadied the innings before accelerating as Delhi looked on course for a total of 180-plus as they were placed 112/3 at the end of 14 overs.
It is the period where Delhi have had the likes of Rishabh Pant, Shimron Hetmyer, Marcus Stoinis do maximum damage on the opposition. Instead, Jaydev Unadkat, Kartik Tyagi and Jofra Archer tightened the screws as Delhi found boundaries hard to come by. In fact, they failed to score a single boundary in 18th and 19th over as Stoinis and Alex Carey struggled to get going as Rajasthan fought back into the game. The pace trio conceded just 32 runs off the last five overs, the least any team has scored while batting first in this IPL.
Rajasthan came out with an intent to be aggressive from the word go as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler gave them a quick start with 37. For a side that relies heavily on the top-order, much depended on them and it proved so again on Wednesday.
Though they kept pace with the required run-rate, one of the biggest letdowns for Rajasthan has been barring Sanju Samson in the early part of the campaign, the rest of the top-order hasn’t scored big. Steve Smith continued to his bad run with the bat Delhi’s spinners Ravichandran Ashwin (1/17) and Axar Patel (1/32) played a perfect ally to their pacers Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje as they never let Rajasthan get the one big they were looking for.