IPL 2019: Match 53, RR vs DC – Who Said What

The Delhi Capitals (DC) turned up with a comprehensive performance at the Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi as they defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five wickets. Shreyas Iyer & Co were clinical throughout the contest and never allowed their opponents to clinch ascendancy. In the meantime, the Ajinkya Rahane-captained Royals crashed out of the cash-rich T20 tournament.

17-year-old Parag shines

The Royals huffed and puffed to 115 in 20 overs. The visitors lost four wickets in the powerplay and could only manage 30 runs. Ishant Sharma got rid of both the openers- Ajinkya Rahane and Liam Livingstone. Sanju Samson lost his wicket courtesy of a run-out. Ishant picked up his third wicket in the form of Mahipal Lomror. The move to promote Shreyas Gopal flopped as he fell prey to Amit Mishra.

Mishra nipped out Stuart Binny for a golden duck and was on a hat-trick. However, Trent Boult dropped Krishnappa Gowtham and Mishra couldn’t accomplish his fourth IPL hat-trick. In the meantime, Riyan Parag showed nerves of steel and became the youngest to notch a half-century in the IPL. The 17-year-old reached the milestone off 47 balls. Boult got him out on the last ball of the innings.

Pant plays a match-winning knock

Shikhar Dhawan took the attacking route and scored 16 off 12. Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi removed the big fish in the fourth over. Sodhi rattled Prithvi Shaw’s woodwork on the next ball and pushed DC on the backfoot. Shreyas Iyer played two big shots and threatened to take the game away, but Gopal got rid of the DC captain. The onus was then on Pant and Colin Ingram to resurrect the innings.

Ingram tried hard with a 23-ball 12 after which he mistimed a sweep off Sodhi into the hands of Rahane. Shrefane Rutherford hit a six and the Windies batter was Gopal’s third victim. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old Pant didn’t die wondering and he scored 53 off 38 with two fours and five over-boundaries. The southpaw started cautiously but pressed the accelerator to help the Capitals win with 23 balls to spare.

Ajinkya Rahane, the RR captain, said

We had a tough season this year. We didn’t capitalise on the tough moments, we can’t place the blame on the boys for today, many of them are playing their 3rd or 4th game. We need to learn from this and come back well next season. Riyan Parag has been exceptional, so has Shreyas Gopal – he always thinks about taking wickets. We play the game with love and passion, it’s all about attitude.

We didn’t bat well, 140-150 would have been challenging. The bowlers gave it all, showed a lot of character. Ish (Sodhi), playing his second game, KG – all of them did well. Personally, my season was good, I was confident about batting. Captaincy and batting is different, I always want to give the best to my franchise, it’s all about staying positive and giving your best.

Shreyas Iyer, the DC captain, said

From the last year, our players have become a lot more open and the support staff have given us the freedom to express ourselves. Also, we are keeping things very simple and that helps. It has been amazing with them being around as they carry a lot of experience. Reading their brains has been amazing for all us youngsters and the tips they give us during a match has been great. Shikhar has been great for us, he’s won us many games and it’s good having him around the team – he has a lot of banter and I enjoy his company.

With Mishi bhai, I have to be around him and keep telling him to back himself with all his experience. It is not difficult because I have been playing with him for five years now. Even though he is experienced, he listens to me. There is no senior or junior in this team at the moment. When I went in, I hit two sixes and either Rishabh or me had to go after to chase it down thinking about the net run-rate. But unfortunately I fell, but Pant played really well to take us home.

Amit Mishra, the Player of the Match, said

I don’t know about the love affair between the IPL and me but I was disappointed about missing out on the hat-trick. I only abused Boult a bit after that and told him he need not have jumped because it was a pretty simple catch (laughs). I always try to bowl my stock ball more, because that is important to build pressure. I didn’t get a lot of wickets this season because batsmen are trying to play me out. Actually, I haven’t spoken to the groundsmen, but we would like to play on better wickets. But it’s probably because of the weather that we have pitches like these. Before going, I would like to thank the crowd – thanks so much for coming and keep supporting us.

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