New Delhi, May 2:
Young Rishabh Pant cracked a blistering 69 while captain Shreyas Iyer (50) hit his fourth half-century of the season as Delhi Daredevils kept themselves in the race for IPL play-offs with a nervy four-run win over Rajasthan Royals here tonight.
The Royals invited Daredevils to bat but were guilty of feeding the home batsmen with deliveries either too short or too full, making the job easy for the hosts after rain made it a 18-over per side affair.
Rain brought a premature end to the Daredevils innings when the hosts were 196 for six in 17.1 overs and Royals were set a revised target of 151 from 12 overs under Duckworth/Lewis method.
After receiving some battering from Joss Buttler, who thrashed the home bowlers with seven sixes and four fours in his 67-run knock, Daredevils restricted the Royals to 146 for five to notch up the win.
Daredevils have now moved up to sixth from eighth position with this win.
Young Prithvi Shaw (47) was yet again in sublime touch and raised a 73-run stand with his captain for the second wicket after the side lost Colin Munro (0) in the fourth ball of the innings.
After Shaw’s dismissal, Iyer and Rishabh Pant combined to punish the wayward Royals’ bowlers, adding 92 runs for the third wicket in just 7.1 overs.
Iyer hit his fourth fifty in last five matches as he consumed 35 balls for his 50, hitting three sixes and as many fours.
Pant hammered the Royals bowlers all around the park in his 29-ball knock, studded with seven fours and five sixes.
Jaydev Unadkat (3/46) removed both of them in the 15th over but by then Daredevils had put up enough runs on the board.
Vijay Shankar (17) came out with some lusty hits to help the hosts get close to 200-run mark.
Royals were off to a fiery start with Buttler going berserk. The England batsman smashed Avesh Khan for three sixes and a four and also punished Liam Plunkett as Royals collected 58 from four Power-play overs.
Buttler completed his fifty off just 18 balls when he lofted Amit Mishra for a six. As many as five bowlers were employed by Daredevils but all of them got severe punishment from Buttler.
It was Mishra who finally gave the breakthrough by having the Briton stumped in the seventh over. The Royals needed a big knock from Ben Stokes (1) but he could not do much. (PTI)
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