Rajasthan Royals beat Delhi Capitals in a stunning turnaround

Thursday, 15 April 2021 - 23:16

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Rajasthan Royals 150 for 7 (Miller 62, Morris 36*, Avesh 3-32) beat Delhi Capitals 147 for 8 (Pant 51, Unadkat 3-15) by three wickets.

Rishabh Pant's Delhi Capitals were beaten by Sanju Samson's Rajasthan Royals with Chris Morris making a strong statement.

And what a finish for Morris, who was refused strike last match. A statement that will be well received, no matter the debate on whether it was right or wrong. Tonight, he's done it. Delhi Capitals' bowling completely imploding in the last two overs, and after missing out a couple of times, Morris made sure to punish them. 27 needed off 12 and they won with two balls to spare.

Morris wins it for Royals, finishes unbeaten on an 18-ball 36, and they are on the points table with the two South Africans, Miller and Morris, the heroes for the team from Rajasthan. A three-wicket win, with two balls to spare and Morris gives a thumbs up to the dug out.

Rajasthan Royals (RR) received major blows at the start of the innings when lost four quick wickets in the powerplay after being set up a target of 148 runs to win by Delhi Capital (DC. Avesh Khan, Chris Woakes and Kagiso Rabada picked up the crucial wickets to break the backbone of the opposition, as RR failed to get going at the start but David Miller kept the fight going through some gutsy batting followed with the finish from Morris.

Not one six was hit in the first 35 overs of the match - it was the first time a 20-overs innings had ended without a six at the Wankhede Stadium - but Miller, Morris and Jaydev Unadkat managed seven sixes between them as the Royals scored 60 in their last 4.4 overs.

The most-expensive player to have been bought in an Indian Premier League (IPL) auction, Chris Morris, was denied a single on the penultimate ball of the last match between Punjab Kings (PBKS) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), with the latter needing 5 runs to win from 2 balls.

Chris Morris had almost reached the non-striker’s end when he looked up to see Sanju Samson still standing there. The Rajasthan Royals captain threw his hands in the air, asking Morris to get back to his creases despite calling for the single after hitting it to long-off. Morris somehow scampered to get back to his mark. He turned towards Samson and had disbelief written all over his face. Morris could not believe that Samson had just turned down a single when RR needed 5 off 2 balls against Punjab Kings in their IPL 2021 opener in Mumbai.

Samson, who was batting on 119, decided that RR’s best bet to get a win was for him to hit a six off the last ball rather than get a single and trust Morris to hit a four. As it turned out, Samson failed to hit the last ball of Arshdeep Singh for a six and was holed out in the deep. PBKS won the match by 4 runs,

The RR captain received backing from former Sri Lanka captain and current RR director of cricket operations, Kumar Sangakkara.

"Sanju took it upon himself to finish that game and he just fell a few yards short and that happens, but the next time I believe that he will hit that 10 yards further to win us the game," Sangakkara said in the post-match presentation.

And today Chris Morris proved that he is match winner making 27 required off 12 balls with great ease. 

Chris Morris: That happens every now and then in the game of cricket, I thought Delhi played really well. Dave played a great hand and it went out way. [On that refused single last match] I was gonna run back no matter what because Sanju was hitting it so sweetly. People underestimate how fast I run. Sanju was hitting it like a dream that night. I think the dew plays a part here. I think they hit the length a lot better than we did and they got a lot of guys skying with the extra bounce. But we would have taken a chase of 140-odd. There are guys that get paid to bat and guys that get paid to slog, and I know which I am. That's why I play so much golf. I think the last game, that close game, we took a lot as a team. For us to get as close on the day, we took a lot out of that first game of ours. Nice to know we can win from anywhere after being down in the dumps.

Rishabh Pant: I think the bowlers did a really good job in the start, but we let them get over us in the end. We could have bowled better. Dew got the better of us. I think we were 15-20 runs short. But there is something to gain from this match, the bowlers did well at the start. Hopefully in the future we can pull things off. I think in the second innings there was more dew than the first innings so we had to be doing our part, because the slower ball wasn't stopping.