Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson‘s 13th half-century in the Indian Premier League (IPL) went in vain as the Delhi Capitals went top of the points table with a 33-run win in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. 

Rajasthan were up against the task from the off, losing openers Liam Livingstone (1 from 3) and Yashaswi Jaiswal (5 from 4) within the first two overs. Veteran Indian spinner Ravichandran Ashwin then dismissed David Miller, replacing compatriot Chris Morris in the squad, to further RR’s misery to leave them reeling at 17/3 in the fifth over.   

Samson was the lone warrior in the middle with no support on the middle order as Mahipal Lomror (19 from 24), Riyan Parag (2 from 7) and Rahul Tewatia (9 from 15) departed in regular intervals. 

Anrich Nortje was the pick of the Delhi bowlers, finishing with figures of 2/18 from four overs with Avesh Khan (1/29), Ravichandran Ashwin (1/20), Kagiso Rabada (1/26) and Axar Patel (1/27) also among the wickets. 

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Winning the toss and choosing to bowl, Rajasthan were the happier side at the break as they restricted Delhi to a modest total of 154 for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs. The Captials couldn’t get any partnerships going as Rajasthan kept taking regular wickets.

Shikhar Dhawan (8 from 8) played a Kartik Tyagi delivery onto his stumps to end his short stay in the middle before Prithvi Shaw (10 from 12) was dismissed by Chetan Sakariya. 

Shreyas Iyer top-scored for Delhi with a 32-ball 43 and was adjudged man of the match, with Shimron Hetmeyer (28 from 16) and skipper Rishabh Pant (24 from 24) chipping in with handy contributions. 

Mustafizur Rehman was the standout Rajasthan bowler, finishing with figures of 2/22 from four overs. 

Speaking on the loss in his post-match comments, Samson said the target was chaseable and that his team will assess the performance. 

“A target of 155 with the quality of batsmen we have, I thought it was chaseable. We had the batting to go after it. I think we will come back stronger in the next game. The emotions are on the higher side, we’ll think about it tomorrow morning. The pitch was not that slow. It was holding up, but if we had a few wickets in hand we could have got the over the line,” he said.