Buttler, Jaiswal power Rajasthan Royals to win over Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals succumbed to their third successive loss in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 to lie in ninth spot in the 10-team competition. On Saturday, they went down to Rajasthan Royals by 57 runs in Guwahati.

The Capitals failed to come up with a decent bowling display as they allowed the Rajasthan Royals to coast to 199/4 in their allotted 20 overs.

The start of the Royals’ innings was quick as opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (60 off 31 balls) took 20 runs off left-armer Khaleel Ahmed’s first over.

Fellow opener Jos Buttler (79 off 51) then took 12 off Anrich Nortje in the second over. The duo then took toll on Axar Patel and the team score raced to 68 without loss in the powerplay.

The Capitals bowlers could separate the two only in the ninth over when the score had already reached 98.

Shimron Hetmyer then scored a quick-fire 39 off 21 balls to take the team total in the vicinity of 200.

If the Capitals harboured any hopes of making a match of it, they were dashed in the first over bowled by Trent Boult (3/29).

The New Zealand pacer removed Prithvi Shaw and Manish Pandey off successive deliveries to dent the Capitals’ batting, reducing them to none for two wickets.

Skipper David Warner stuck around, scoring 65 off 55 balls and managing a 64-run partnership with Lalit Yadav (38 off 24) for the fourth wicket.

The partnership, however, cost them 44 balls and failed to worry the Royals’ skipper Sanju Samson much since India internationals R Ashwin (2/25) and Yuzvendra Chahal (3/27) ran through the middle and end overs sharing five wickets for just 52 runs in eight overs.