IPL 2018: Match 32, DD vs RR- Who Said What

The game between the Delhi Daredevils (DD) and the Rajasthan Royals (RR) was threatened to be marred by rain and it was eventually curtailed by quite a few overs. However, it wasn’t a detriment to the excitement that the match dished out. Delhi amassed a massive score following which the Rajasthan Royals huffed and puffed and fell short of the target by 4 runs (DLS Method).

Iyer and Pant maul visitors

The pitch at the Feroz Shah Kotla was an absolute belter and quite expectantly, Ajinkya Rahane elected to have a crack at the Delhi batsmen. The home team had a horrendous start as Dhawal Kulkarni nipped out Colin Munro’s wicket. Thereafter, Prithvi Shaw and Shreyas Iyer got them back into the game and took the bowlers by the scruff of their necks in the powerplay.

Shaw was nipped out by Shreyas Gopal which came as a breather for Rahane’s boys. The wicket didn’t hamper the home team by any means as Rishabh Pant and Iyer blazed away and carved a partnership of 92 runs after which the rain came back to impose itself on the game. Pant eventually scored 69 runs followed by a brief cameo by Vijay Shankar which propelled their score to 196 in 17.1 overs.

Buttler blazes away, but Delhi hold nerves   

The revised target of 151 runs in 12 overs wasn’t going to be a cakewalk by any stretch of the imagination. However, Jos Buttler stomped out all guns blazing and bashed the likes of Avesh Khan into oblivion, which brought them back into contention for a victory. He scored a half-century in 18 balls but was dismissed by Amit Mishra’s guile and trajectory.

After the English cricketer’s dismissal, D’Arcy Shot took the responsibility on himself and smashed Glenn Maxwell for three consecutive sixes in the 10th over. To the visiting team’s agony, Maxwell got rid of him in the same over, which made Delhi the firm favourites. Ben Stokes, Sanju Samson and Rahul Tripathi couldn’t contribute much, but Krishnappa Gowtham played some strokes to keep them alive, but all in vain.

Ajinkya Rahane, the captain of Rajasthan Royals, said  

Disappointing to lose this game. We batted incredibly well. Jos upfront was magnificent. The wicket was pretty good. We were trying to bowl hard lengths. It is a learning phase for our bowlers. We are still in the tournament. Upfront he is a very dangerous player and good for us that Jos is in form. We all believe that we can win all our games and make it to the play-offs. We have always taken one game at a time. It is all in the mind now and we will have to show character.

Shreyas Iyer, captain of Delhi Daredevils, said

It was a very important victory for us. This wicket is very good and even 200 is very less, bowlers kept thir nerve and we came back strong. I dropped the catch but we won the match, we should look forward. Start that Shaw is giving is amazing and Pant role in the middle is pivotal. It is important for us to win all the match. Ponting is a positive guy and no one is thinking negative in the dressing room. It is difficult to ball with ground being small, it is really tough to control when batsmen starts hitting.

Player of the Match: Rishabh Pant said

“It is going great for me. I am more important with the win. Nothing added responsibility for being the retained player. I am using some different tricks to counter the bowlers. We are being positive because we know if we loss one more match we are out of the tournament. Intent is the same in every match we play”.

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