Twitter Reactions: Rishabh Pant's fierce 78* overshadows Ajinkya Rahane's ton in Jaipur

The Delhi Capitals (DC) have defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by six wickets at the Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur. It was a day for the two players whose ability to score runs in adverse circumstances was being seriously questioned. If it was Ajinkya Rahane’s sheer class in the first innings, Rishabh Pant overshadowed it with his fierce batting. The Royals opener scored a century but it went in vain in the end with DC chasing down the steep total.

The DC needed a quick-fire start from Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw to gun down the total of 192 runs. The former didn’t disappoint and started to bang the ball from the word go. The powerplay was all about Dhawan and the southpaw raced through to his half-century. He scored 54 runs off just 27 balls before getting out to Shreyas Gopal. Until this point, Prithvi Shaw was struggling but he kept his cool and didn’t throw his wicket away.

Shreyas Iyer tried to force the pace but got out early only to bring Rishabh Pant in the middle. The wicketkeeper-batsman took a bit of time before going berserk on every other RR bowler. A decent partnership between him and Shaw kept DC in the game. The duo added 84 runs for the third wicket in less than eight overs and Pant had scored most of the runs in it.

Shaw got out at a crucial stage but Pant didn’t lose his head and continued playing some authoritative strokes. The game went down to the last over but one felt that it was always in the control for the visitors. Pant remained unbeaten on 78 off just 36 deliveries with six fours and four sixes to overshadow Rahane’s ton. Delhi Capitals, with his win, have climbed to the top of the table by trumping the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on the basis of net run-rate.

Rahane proves a point with a brilliant ton

Earlier, it was all about Ajinkya Rahane. With no captaincy baggage, he played some delightful strokes to start his innings. He was the culprit to run Sanju Samson out in the second over but more than made up for it with his classy batting. Steve Smith joined him and two of the most underrated T20 batsmen lit up the Sawai Mansingh stadium. They stitched 130 runs in just a span of 12 overs and at one stage, it felt as if RR will cross the 200-run mark easily.

But Smith was dismissed soon after his half-century and Rahane, despite getting to his century, didn’t get much of the strike in the death over. Having said that, the opener played a superb knock and remained unbeaten on 105 runs off just 63 deliveries with 11 fours and three massive sixes to prove a point to his critics.

The likes of Stuart Binny and Riyan Parag couldn’t make it big at the death even as Ashton Turner bagged his fifth consecutive duck in the T20 format to go with three ducks in a row in the IPL. He is yet to get off the mark in the league and is likely to lose his place for the next match now. Eventually, the Royals could post 191 runs for the loss of six wickets after 20 overs which is looked a bit under par given the start they had got. It wasn’t enough though as Pant made the light work of the chase.

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