Live Blog - Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals - Samson 86 in vain as Capitals go fifth

Sanju Samson fought a lone battle with the bat in vain as Delhi Capitals’ 221 proved to be a few too many for Rajasthan Royals to chase. Kuldeep Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed shared six wickets between them as Capitals successfully defended their total after being put in to bat, subjecting Royals to their second defeat on the trot.

It was Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel who set up Capitals’ batting effort, both hitting rapid half-centuries.

R Ashwin, who had come into the game with two wickets in the season, returned a three-wicket haul to slow Capitals down, but Tristan Stubbs once again provided the hosts with a powerful finish to take them to a total beyond Royals’ reach.

After Shubham Dubey holes out to Khaleel Ahmed, Kuldeep Yadav delivers a double-wicket over that has Rajasthan Royals on the mat. He traps Donovan Ferreira in front before bowling a wide one to Ashwin, who drags a catch to long-on. Royals lose four wickets for 23 runs and Capitals are in the driving seat again

Sanju Samson lifts Mukesh Kumar down the ground but Shai Hope takes a good catch running to his left from long-on. It's a great knock that's come to an end. Samson has hit 86 off 46. But wait, there's more. The catch has been sent up for a check, with Hope hopping at the boundary rope. The replay shows that as he lands after taking the catch, he trips himself forward before balancing himself to get away from the rope. From one angle, it looked like he had tripped himself forward enough to have touched the rope. Samson was walking back into the middle, but a check from another angle confirmed that there was no contact between Hope's feet and the rope. It's given out and Samson walks up to the umpire in protest, but there's not much he can do.

Khaleel Ahmed bowls four wides in a row as the 15th over sees ten deliveries bowled. Khaleel almost gets Samson out as well, though, but the ball falls short of long-off.

After going for six runs off his first three balls, Khaleel gets a short one to go above Samson's head before trying to go wide of off and missing his line for three balls in a row.

Sanju Samson starts the 13th over by going 6, 4, 6 against Rasikh Salam as Royals record an 18-run over.

Samson then crashes a drive just over a leaping cover fielder for another boundary in the next over, before Shubham Dubey finishes with a flicked boundary and a massive six over long-on.

ESPNcricinfo's win predictor for Royals goes from 9.8% to 29.99% in the space of 12 balls.

Riyan Parag and Sanju Samson rebuilt with a 36-run stand, but it came off 31 balls. Rasikh Salam got a slower one to remove the off bail to send Parag packing. Maybe if Shimron Hetmyer and Dhruv Jurel had been in the side today, the two would have been more aggressive. Samson, meanwhile, brought up his half-century the next over with a six off a free hit.

Sanju Samson ensures Rajasthan Royals make the most of the powerplay as he races off to 41 off 16. He hit Khaleel Ahmed for a four and a six before hitting Ishant Sharma for two boundaries and a six. He finishes Khaleel's next over with 4, 4, 6 before Axar Patel gets Jos Buttler to chop on in the last over of the powerplay.

Khaleel Ahmed removes the dangerous Yashasvi Jaiswal off his second ball to give Capitals the perfect start. Jaiswal was looking to back away and slap a slower bouncer away, but miscues it to mid-off.

"I'm telling you, a couple of years ago with us, when [Shikhar] Dhawan and [Prithvi] Shaw were opening, one of our mantras was to get to 45 for none or one down. Even before the last two years, par in powerplay would be 45 to 50 through the IPL. Now this year it'll be a lot more and teams are doing it easily."

Read the full interview here.

s

After a boundary from Gulbadin Naib, Stubbs first goes for a reverse-sweep and then a paddle sweep for back-to-back boundaries. He finishes the with a massive slog sweep over deep backward square. Trent Boult gets Naib in the next over, but Rasikh Salam scoops Boult for boundaries off his first two balls to take Capitals past 200.

After two seasons spent largely on the sidelines, the South African batter is showing the IPL what he can do. He has the highest strike rate in the death in IPL 2024, and is Delhi Capitals' highest run-getter after Rishabh Pant. You can read Himanshu Agrawal's piece on him being superb against spin and destructive at the death.

R Ashwin gets his third as he gets Abishek Porel to hole out. Rishabh Pant then falls to Yuzvendra Chahal as Delhi Capitals fall to 150 for 5. It's Chahal's 350th T20 wicket as well! Here is what our experts had to say about the battle of spin in this game:

Axar Patel fell to R Ashwin, but Abishek Porel, unbeaten on 46 off 27 at the 10-over mark, and Jake Fraser-McGurk, who made a 20-ball 50, have ensured Capitals are on track for a big score.

Porel gets to his half-century with a six off the first ball he faces in the 11th over, with Rishabh Pant for company. Sampath Bandarupalli drops a little stat nugget: Only the eighth time both the DC openers got fifties in an IPL match. This is the first time they have done it at Delhi since 2015

Soon after Fraser-McGurk's wicket, Shai Hope also has to depart, for little fault of his own though. Abishek Porel hammers a shot back down the ground but Sandeep Sharma sticks his left hand out and deflects the ball towards the stumps at the non-striker's end. Hope was well out of his crease and has to make the long walk back

Ravichandran Ashwin throws up a thigh high full toss as his first ball to Fraser-McGurk, but the opener can only hammer it to the fielder's hands at cover. With his fifty up, he was not looking to slow down, but couldn't get the placement right this time.

Fraser-McGurk begins the third over by lofting Trent Boult over his head for a six before slapping him for four over short third. The most outrageous shot comes one ball later, as he tennis-forehands a length ball over extra cover for another boundary.

But he was just getting started as he takes 28 runs off Avesh Khan. He goes from 7 off 7 to a 50 off 19 balls, which is his slowest in the season! Avesh was unlucky as the first ball drew an inside edge past the stumps for four, but Fraser-McGurk then took control completely as every ball of the over went for a boundary

Trent Boult, oh so famous for swinging the ball into right-handers from over the wicket, decides to change things up from the start to angle the ball in from around the wicket to Jake Fraser-McGurk. Fraser-McGurk starts off with a brace, clipped off his pads in front of square, but is then beaten three balls in a row, with the third one hitting the batter on the box.

But Fraser-McGurk counters by moving leg side and chipping a length ball over mid-off the very next ball

Average: 57.33. Strike rate: 292

That's Jake Fraser-McGurk's stats in Delhi this season. The young Australian is the first big challenge for the Rajasthan Royals bowlers. Can Trent Boult do the damage with the new ball again? He has 61 powerplay wickets in the IPL and will be itching to add to that list tonight.

Rajasthan Royals skipper Sanju Samson chooses to bowl after calling it right at the toss. Dhruv Jurel and Shimron Hetmyer are out with niggles, with Donovan Ferreira and Shubham Dubey coming into the XI.

"This year is as much of a batting wicket as you can get," Rishabh Pant comments at the toss. Ishant Sharma is back for Delhi Capitals.

DC: 1 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 2 Abishek Porel, 3 Shai Hope, 4 Tristan Stubbs, 5 Rishabh Pant (capt, wk), 6 Gulbadin Naib, 7 Axar Patel 8 Kuldeep Yadav, 9 Mukesh Kumar, 10 Ishant Sharma, 11 Khaleel Ahmed.

Impact Subs: Salam, Kushagra, Praveen, Sumit and Lalit

RR: 1 Rovman Powell, 2 Yashasvi Jaiswal, 3 Sanju Samson (capt & wk), 4 Riyan Parag, 5 Shubham Dubey, 6 Donovan Ferreira, 7 R Ashwin, 8 Trent Boult, 9 Avesh Khan, 10 Sandeep Sharma, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Impact Subs: Buttler, Sen, Kotian, Kohler-Cadmore and Rathore