In their last match in Jaipur, Rajasthan Royals [RR] were asked to bat first, scored around 230, and never looked like they could defend it. On Friday, against Delhi Capitals [DC], their second match in Jaipur this year, RR won the toss, chose to bat first, scored around 230, and never looked like they could defend it. Between these two matches, RR themselves chased down around 230 with ease.

The decision at the toss remains in sharp focus because it took extraordinary hitting for RR to recover from 36 for 2 in five overs when the ball seamed. During the chase, though, the pitch didn’t offer much to RR, who have arguably had the best attacking new-ball bowlers in Jofra Archer and Nandre Burger. The result was DC’s highest sucessful chase without seemingly having to come out of third gear.

Riyan Parag had to endure the early misbehaviour before he could turn his innings around into 90 off 50 balls. Donovan Fereira (47* in 14 balls) drilled out proverbial yorkers for sixes to give RR their second-best finish in the Impact Player era.

However, led by the returning Mitchell Starc’s three-for, the DC bowlers did just enough to let their batters make full use of the improved conditions. Pathum Nissanka started the charge with 52 from 26 deliveries in the powerplay, KL Rahul went at better than two a ball in the middle overs, and Nitish Rana put any possible nerves to rest with his 33 off 17 balls.

Riyan Parag celebrates his first fifty of the season [Cricinfo]

The moment Parag won the toss and surprised just about everybody, including his opponents, that shock quickly gave way to anticipation of watching Vaibhav Sooryavanshi go against Starc after his first-ball sixes off Jasprit Bumrah and Pat Cummins, a second-baller off Sunil Narine, and four boundaries in first four balls against Josh Hazlewood.

However, things happened at the wrong ends. Yashasvi Jaiswal hit Starc for a first-ball six, and two balls later, offered a return chance off a high full toss. Sooryavanshi never got to the Starc end as he played on a Kyle Jamieson yorker, which might point to a pre-decided plan.

Parag had the dubious company of Dhruv Jurel, but he kept RR going at a rate that was exciting but did not promise a win. However, outside the three wickets that fell, you hardly see or hear of any IPL coaches asking those in the between to initiate something.

KL Rahul scored 75 off 40 balls [Cricinfo]

Now RR were happy with a strike rate of little over one as long as Ravindra Jadeja could offer Ferreira shield from Kuldeep Yadav, with the right-hand batter having fallen to the left-arm wristspinner twice in nine balls. Jadeja was strictly a pinch anchor, asked to face Kuldeep out for Ferreira to have the biggest impact.

But what impact did Ferreira have, including hitting three sixes off Kuldeep. The balls he hit were no more than two inches off the mark, if at all. By bending his back knee and staying deep inside the crease, Ferreira took RR to what looked like a competitive score.

Under slick conditions in the chase, the ball came on much better. Neither Nissanka nor Rahul had to extend himself. While Nissanka went past fifty in the first six overs, Rahul put out a clinic on batting outside the powerplay. The RR spinners couldn’t quite extract the same assistance as DC did. In the powerplay, Nissanka made it look like a morning walk. Outside of it, Rahul took down the likeliest man to get a wicket, the legspinner Ravi Bishnoi.

For someone introduced into this IPL as a second thought and only for his par-time offspin against SRH, Rana has shown he belongs at this level if not for India. While the two DC openers holed out, they had already done such good work that DC needed just 49 off 28 balls. Tristan Stubbs and Ashutosh Sharma were never going to allow a hiccup.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 226 for 3 (Pathum Nissanka 62, KL Rahul 75, Nitish Rana 33, Tristan Stubbs 18*, Ashutosh Sharma 25*; Jofra Archer 1-46, Thushar Deshpande 1-38, Ravindra Jadeja 1-33) beat Rajasthan Royals 225 for 6 in 20 overs (Dhruv Jurel 42, Riyan Parag 90, Ravindra Jadeja 20, Donovan Ferreira 47*; Mitchell Starc 3-40, Kyle Jamieson 1-48, Axar Patel 1-39, T Natarajan 1-54) by seven wickets

[Cricinfo]