Surprisingly, Rajasthan won the toss and decided the Delhi batsmen to have a go at them early on. And, the away side got off the best of starts - dismissing both the openers early on in the innings. Both Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw fell in the span of two deliveries to leave Delhi hanging at 32/2 at the end of four overs. However, Iyer and Pant stitched a 66-run partnership in the middle-overs before a late collapse had them settle on 181 at the end of the first innings. Iyer ended up scoring 56, while Pant scored a 27-ball 35 for the Capitals. 

On the other hand, Rajasthan got off to a wrong start, with Buttler walking back early in the innings, with the total reading 16 in 1.2 overs. Despite the brilliance from Robin Uthappa and Sanju Samson, Rajasthan never got going in the middle overs of the innings, leaving too much too late, in the end, to chase for the Royals. While Uthappa scored a 22-ball 31, Samson scored a 26-ball 43 run to get them going after the early shock. Delhi’s spinners in the middle-overs put the brakes on the innings, leaving them well short of the required total. 

Robin Uthappa’s dismissal was arguably the turning point in the encounter, with Rajasthan well-ahead in the game at 73-1 in 7.3 overs. The away side were running away with the game, scoring at nearly 10 runs an over, chasing 182. Until then, Uthappa had scored 31, in 22 balls and looked in sublime form. However, a timely breakthrough from Ravichandran Ashwin ensured that Rajasthan faced another batting collapse. 

Skipper Smith’s lean form definitely is a worry for the franchise, with the top-order getting them off to a great start. While the Englishman Buttler’s form, too has been a worry, nothing bigger than their skippers. Two consecutive failures and the pressure is right on the Australian to turn his fortune around in the next game. In this fixture, he scored just one run in four deliveries and got stumped to the Nepali spinner Lamichhane. Surely, the Australian has to do better things for the team trusts him in the middle-order. 

Batting first, it was the worst possible start for Delhi at home, losing both their openers in the third over of the innings and the powerplay. While until then, they could only score 32 runs, making it a slow start for the home side. By the end of the powerplay, the onus was on preserving the wickets and not dabbling with the acceleration of runs. That meant that they could only score 44 runs for the loss of two wickets in the powerplay. 

Arguably the best period, also, incidentally the match-changing period of the innings for the Delhi side. In the middle overs, they capitalised heavily on the gaps, scoring runs in a free-flowing manner, as was expected from them in the powerplays. The duo of Iyer-Pant, in the middle overs, ran a show, putting up a 66-run partnership. Just before the death overs, they scored 122 runs for the loss of just three wickets, with room for the rest of the team to score well in the death overs. 

The less that is said about Rajasthan’s death over bowling, the better. From 122/4 in 15 overs, the home side reached a match-winning total, all thanks to their death over scoring. And for Rajasthan, thanks to their horrible bowling. From 122/4, the Royals’ bowlers leaked runs at a water-rate as Delhi ended up on 181/8 in 20 overs. The bowlers allowed 59 runs in a rather failed death-bowling from the tourists. 

Well, the match was entirely brilliant to watch from Delhi’s perspective with them stepping up and putting their ‘A’ game. For the away side, it was a terrible game, with their batsmen failing and their bowlers just matching their batsmen’s standards in the tournament. Overall, the game was better than bad and less than a good encounter between the bat and the ball.