Mustafiz claims two wickets in miracle Royals win
BI Report || BusinessInsider
It was Delhi’s first defeat of the tournament while the Royals registered their first win in two games
Rajasthan Royals survived a top-order melt down to beat Delhi Capitals by three wickets in a hard-fought Indian Premier League (IPL) encounter at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Thursday night.
Rajasthan Royals team management kept faith in Mustafiz’s bowling ability in the Royals’ second match.
Rajasthan however will be happy that their faith in Mustafizur paid off as Bangladesh’s pace bowling sensation scalped two wickets for 29 runs in four overs to keep Delhi’s middle and lower order under pressure.
T20 rockstar David Miller has injected life into Royals’ IPL campaign with a game-changing knock and bowling all-rounder Chris Morris has timed his performance perfectly for Royals to stage a miracle comeback to beat Delhi in a low-scoring thriller.
In a match that saw fortunes fluctuate till the dying moments, and Morris held his nerve in the final over to assure Royal’s win with two balls in hand.
It was Delhi's first defeat of the tournament while the Royals registered their first win in two games.
The match should have never gone down to the final over. But a combination of poor shot selection and disciplined bowling by Delhi bowlers kept the game alive till the end.
Rajasthan Royals suffered an early collapse during their run-chase of 148 as the trio pace attack of Delhi Capitals- Chris Woakes [2-22], Avesh Khan (3-32) and speedster KagisoRabada [2-30] ran riot to dismiss Jos Buttler [2], skipper Sanju Samson (4), Manan Vohra (9), ShivamDube (2) and RiyanParag (2), leaving the team reeling at 5-42.
But the Royals were in the game with Millar (62 off 43 balls) was at the crease. David Miller hit seven fours and two massive sixes in his magnificent cameo.
It seemed all over when Millar was gone in the 16th over with 44 runs still needed. But Royals were helped toward the finish line thanks mainly to South African big-hitting Morris who struck four sixes with an unbeaten 36 off 18 balls -overcoming a late batting collapse.
Earlier after opting to bowl first, Mustafizur Rahman and his pace partner JaydevUnadkat led a high-class Royals pace attack meant Delhi were only able to post147 for eight from their full 20 overs.
A woeful batting performance from the Delhi - only skipper Rishabh Pant showed some resistance with a 32-ball 51.
The player of the match JaydevUnadkat’snew-ball swing caused some issues and Delhi’s inform openers were dismissed inside 16.
From there it was all downhill for the Delhi; Pant kept the runs ticking over as much as he could but his partners kept disappearing at the other end. A magnificent delivery from Mustafiz removed T20 star Marcus Stoinis in his first over to get his first IPL wicket this season. And it was Mustafiz and Unadkatwho caused the most problems.
Mustafiz later castled Tom Curran (21) with a fine cutter. Mustafiz finished with 2 for 29 from his four overs and Unadkat’sfour overs brought 3 for 15 as the batsmen had no answers to their pace, cutter and swing.
