RR vs DC | Player Ratings - Shikhar Dhawan, Rishabh Pant star as Delhi Capitals secure their sixth win
After Shikhar Dhawan set up the base, Rishabh Pant played a solid 78-run innings as Delhi Capitals made a mockery of Rajasthan Royals’ 192-run target to win the game by six wickets. Prithvi Shaw also played a slow yet effective innings at the top to give the team a solid start in the run-chase.
Prithvi Shaw (7/10): Prithvi Shaw is like Fred the soldier who has the same ambition as the rest of the army, but finds a different drummer. Today, however, the Mumbaikar waited to see Shikhar Dhawan’s process and invariably, found the sweet spot of the bat as soon as he started following the template. A slow yet an effective 42 which helped the Capitals track down the total easily.
Shikhar Dhawan (8/10): It was not only the Delhi Capitals fans but also the army of Indian cricket team fans who were smiling as Shikhar Dhawan as he scored yet another fifty to provide Delhi Capitals with a solid start in the run-chase. A strike rate of 200 means the game was in Delhi's grasp by the time he was dismissed and the platform was set for the likes of Shreyas Iyer and Rishabh Pant to fire on all cylinders.
Shreyas Iyer (2/10): It was a shot that the Delhi skipper wouldn’t be too proud of. Riyan Parag is a part-timer and the wicket was filled with dew to such an extent that he just had to work on the gaps to throw a spanner on Ajinkya Rahane’s works. Instead, Iyer decided to go after Parag straight away and ended up top-edging a delivery that should’ve instead flicked to the mid-wicket boundary for a four.
Rishabh Pant (9/10): The unpredictability has made Rishabh Pant a special batsman and even though he came to the game on the back of a couple of failures, he showed none of them on his way to an unbeaten 36-ball 78-run innings. It was the classic Pant innings and something that would give Delhi Capitals a lot of strength as they set on a journey to secure a place in the play-offs.
Colin Ingram (5/10): A livewire on the field, Ingram didn’t have to do much with the bat and had to face only five deliveries to secure three runs while Pant was on fire at the other end. The game was so close that it was literally impossible for Delhi Capitals to choke from there and Ingram just didn’t.Â
Chris Morris (3/10): First rule of bowling in India - don’t bowl full balls in a T20 match if there is no swing on offer. Jaipur, for sure, didn’t have any amount of help for the swing bowlers and the over audacity shown by Chris Morris was rightfully punished by the duo of Ajinkya Rahane and Steve Smith as the South African ended up conceding 41 runs in 4 overs.
Sherfane Rutherford (3/10): Playing only the second match of his IPL career, Rutherford hardly proved the hype around him and was dismissed for 11 by miscuing Dhawal Kulkarni in the 18th over. With the ball, he couldn’t do anything good either, by giving away as many as 16 runs in the only over he bowled.
Axar Patel (2/10): The Gujarat left-armer was let down by a couple of factors. Firstly, the presence of dew and secondly a more determined Rahane at the other end. Patel offered him flatter arm-balls on a platter and it didn’t serve his cause as Rahane decided to go inside out to drive him on the up. With dew being effective, Axar needed to drag his length back and should’ve tried exploiting the little possibility that the flat Jaipur deck had to offer. The failure in doing that resulted in his figure sporting a torrid look at the end.
Kagiso Rabada (6/10): Okay, a 9.25 economy rate is not good in T20 cricket, but if you can contain runs in the last over and can dismiss a couple of batsmen in the process, one wouldn’t mind applauding it. Yes, it was Kagiso Rabada’s figures tonight and despite conceding a lot of runs in the middle overs, he ended up being their best bowler for the night. To go with that, his brilliant throw to run Sanju Samson out gave Delhi an edge from the very first over of the game.
Amit Mishra (2.5/10): Agreed that there was not a lot of support for spinners from the surface, but Mishra was guilty of binding by the early perception of the batting-friendly surface. Giving flight was good, but if you can’t give any sort of drift, then it wouldn’t be fruitful on a belter of a wicket. Mishra’s lack of judgement cost him as many as 28 runs in 3 overs before Shreyas Iyer decided to take him off the attack.
Ishant Sharma (7/10): If there was one bowler who bowled with some sanity, apart from Kagiso Rabada, it had to be Ishant Sharma. He mixed up his length and operated within the good and short length in order to ensure that Rahane didn’t have a lot of areas to play his drives. Notwithstanding the fact that he was taken for a few sixes and boundaries in death, he was the only saving grace for the team.
Cricket FootBall Kabaddi
Basketball Hockey
SportsCafe