New Delhi: The Delhi Capitals defeated the Rajasthan Royals in Match 56 of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium on Tuesday. Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel both hit contrasting fifties, and Tristan Stubbs put the finishing touches on the innings with a 20-ball 41.
Fraser-McGurk captivated the crowd with a 19-ball fifty, but Porel routinely found boundaries to score a 36-ball 65. The DC openers have only reached their fiftieth IPL match century. Furthermore, this was the first time that the event had taken place in New Delhi since Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer each scored fifty runs as openers in 2015.
In his 41 off 20 balls, Stubbs hit three fours and as many sixes, ensuring that the 200 mark was crossed in the opening innings of an IPL 2024 game here for the fourth time in a row, despite a slowness in the middle overs. To stay in the running for a postseason berth, DC will be hoping that 221 is good enough for two points.
With a 3-24 record, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the preferred bowler for RR. Trent Boult tested Fraser-McGurk early on, hitting him once on the box and from around the wicket angle. However, Fraser-McGurk chipped a length ball over mid-off for six to end the opening over.
In the third over, Fraser-McGurk hit a lofted straight shot, slash, and mishit to take a six and two fours off Boult after Porel lofted and whacked down the ground off Sandeep Sharma for a brace of fours.
After hitting a four off an inside edge in the fourth over, Fraser-McGurk got rolling and started to rip apart Avesh. By staying leg-side of the ball, he smashed 28 runs in the over and reached his fifty in 19 balls by pounding, slicing, lofting, driving and hitting across the line with ease twice.
Ashwin put an end to his amusement by smashing a full toss straight to cover. Shai Hope was then run out when Sandeep deflected the ball towards the non-striker’s end. In the eleventh over, Abishek struck a pulled six off Avesh to score his first fifty of the season while scintillating with his leg-side boundaries.
Axar Patel holed out to long-off against Ashwin, and then Porel sliced to backward point against the off-spinner, but RR recovered. DC appeared to be in danger of missing 200 as Rishabh Pant’s unbalanced slog-sweep was caught by a deep backward square leg off Boult.
Stubbs and Gulbadin Naib, however, had other plans in mind in order to give DC a spectacular conclusion. Stubbs used reverse sweep and paddle sweep to get back-to-back boundaries, while Naib smoked Chahal twice over long-on for six and four runs, respectively. Naib concluded the 21-run over with a magnificent slog sweep over deep backward square for six.
Even though Boult’s slower ball outperformed Naib, Impact Substitute Rasikh Salam scored four runs in a row on back-to-back scoops to push DC over 200. In the last over, Stubbs hit Sandeep for two consecutive sixes before the pacer trapped him leg before wicket with a brilliant yorker. DC then reached 220 when Kuldeep Yadav was run out on the final ball of the innings.