Blog - DC go top after winning Super Over

They need just four balls to get home.

KL Rahul eases the pressure second ball by carving a boundary off Sandeep behind point.

Then with 5 needed off 3, Stubbs pulls the short ball over deep midwicket to seal victory.

DC go top of the table.

RR have committed hara-kiri in the shootout, batting just five deliveries and losing both their wickets - Riyan Parag and Yashasvi Jaiswal - to run outs to leave DC needing 11.

Starc has done it!

Needing 2 to win off 1 ball, Jurel can only get one, and is run out trying to steal a second after he tucks a yorker on middle towards midwicket.

Starc nailed five superb yorkers in that over. Gun bowler.

Starc, who sent Rana back with a toe-crusher in his penultimate over, is tasked to deliver for DC. Can he do it?

Axar should've had Nitish Rana in the 15th over. Stubbs puts down a catch at long-on to reprieve Rana on 20. Not only does the over go for 16, Rana muscles the a six and four off the next Kuldeep over to considerably reduce pressure on RR. Things get worse for DC as Kuldeep has jarred his elbow on the field, and goes off the field. He's bowled out for the night, though. DC need 30 off 17 with eight wickets in hand.

But he perishes soon after as Kuldeep lulls him in flight and has him dragging a straight hit to Starc at long-on RR 113/2 in 13.3 overs.

In his first over, Axar had Riyan Parag get a leading edge, deceiving him in the air and then letting the grip off the pitch do its thing. He comes back in the next over and does Parag with drift and turn to beat his defence. Royals 76/1 in 8.1 overs; effectively two down you'd think.

He began the sixth over, by Vipraj Nigam, with two pull shots. The first flat-batted to the long-on boundary, the second hammered over deep midwicket. As he reached out and mistimed a cut third ball, Samson was in visible pain and immediately clutched his sides. He was in so much pain that he couldn't even take a single after hitting the next ball to long-off. He immediately signals to the physio and walks off. Could be a massive blow. RR 61/0 in 5.3 overs

Ashutosh Sharma at midwicket doesn't even get s hand on the skier. Mohit has Samson dragging a hoick, gets so much elevation that Ashutosh runs forward, moves back and then tries to settle underneath, but in the end the swirler gets away from him and bursts through his hands. Samson was on 20. How costly will that prove to be?

Remember this battle from Perth?

Jaiswal has taken a liking to Starc. When he bowls full, he brings out the mow as he clears the front leg. When dug in short, he's ready to pounce on the pull. The standout stroke was the swivel pull - where he got inside the line and hammered it into the second tier over deep backward square leg. DC 36/0 in 3 overs

Axar Patel and Tristan Stubbs gave late impetus to a floundering Delhi Capitals innings; they finished with 188 for 5 after being put into bat by Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. This was the first sub-200 score by a team batting first in the last nine T20 innings at this ground.

Axar injected momentum in the death with a takedown of Wanindu Hasaranga, hitting 34 off 14 in all. Stubbs, dropped on 12 off 8 by Riyan Parag off Hasaranga, batted through to also finish 34 not out off 18 balls as the last three overs went for 42 runs.

This included a 19-run final over off Sandeep Sharma, who until then had sensational figures of 3-0-14-0. Sandeep bowled four wides, a no-ball in what proved to be a 11-ball over that ended with Maheesh Theekshana dropping a sitter at point off Stubbs.

The tone was set up top by Abishek Porel, who picked 23 off Tushar Deshpande’s first over - the 2nd of the innings - by Jake Fraser-McGurk and Karun Nair fell early. McGurk began by lofting Jofra Archer for consecutive boundaries in the first over, but holed out to mid-off trying to loft a hard-length delivery.

Nair, coming off his IPL best of 89 on debut, then survived three rocket deliveries from Archer. Two of those were bouncers that whizzed past his ear and had him mistime a pull that nearly carried to square leg. Then he was run out at the non-striker’s end following a mix-up with Porel as he walked back for a duck.

KL Rahul was cautious to begin with, the slowness of the surface proving challenging to score, especially when deliveries were dug into the pitch on a length. At one stage he was on 17 off 18, but couldn’t quite push on - eventually falling for a 32-ball 38 when he pulled Archer to deep midwicket. Porel's dismissal for 49 made it a double-strike, leaving DC in dire need of momentum.

This is when DC had Axar to thank as he immediately took down spin to inject momentum that Stubbs carried forward to give them a total to bowl at.

3-0-14-0 coming into the final over. And then he goes for plenty. Four wides, a no-ball with the free hit walloped for four, a full toss that finds the boundary - and astonishingly DC still had three more balls. The over eventually costs them 19, ending with Theekshana making a right royal mess of a skier at point. Stubbs was so disappointed at being unable to hit it cleanly that he immediately looked away and started to talk, and so they didn't even try for a single. DC finish with 188 for 5.

This sequence includes a reprieve to Stubbs (when he was on 12 off 8) by Parag at long-on. It also includes a rank full toss that Axar hit straight to long-on. Sensational cameo nonetheless, 34 off 14. DC 146/5 in 17 overs.

Jofra Archer had Porel trying to avoid a short ball bowled into the body. But he wasn't able to entirely get out of the way as the ball kissed the bottom edge thanks to the bat dangling out. Samson took the catch but didn't appeal. No one did. On 49 off 35 then, Porel holes ou off the very next ball he faces in the next over trying hit Hasaranga over long-off. DC 106/4 in 14 overs.

Teams batting first have made 200+ in each of the last eight T20 games (seven IPL matches) here. But this surface doesn't seem to be one made for such a score?

The boundary dimensions here can be demoralising for a spinner, but when there's assistance, like there is tonight, spinners can be more than a handful. We've seen Hasaranga get some grip, especially to the googly, Theekshana has got the odd ball to stop on the batter. Now, Royals bring Riyan Parag on for the first time with the ball this season.

Rahul and Porel's approach against spin also seems to suggest this isn't the easiest of decks to bat. Even Jofra Archer's slower length ball dug into the surface as he comes on for his third, doesn't quite slide on and has Rahul dragging a pull to cow corner. And interestingly, it's the leg-cutter dug into the surface that has Rahul mistiming a pull to deep midwicket for 38 off 32. DC 98/3 in 13 overs

Just the one boundary - Rahul's six down the ground off Deshpande - between overs 5-8. DC 60/2. Rahul hasn't been able to get going yet - he's on 17 off 18 (10 of those came off just two deliveries).

Some days, you just can't put a foot wrong. Like he didn't in his sensational takedown of Jasprit Bumrah the other night. But tonight is not Karun's.

After being roughed up by two superb Jofra Archer short balls, he's run out at the non-striker's end after a mix-up with Porel. Hasaranga at point lobs the ball back to Sandeep Sharma, who under-arm flicks the stumps as Karun is inches short.

After getting his bat down in time to squeeze out a full, tailing in-swinger first ball, he lofted Jofra Archer for two fours over extra cover to get underway. But once again, he falls inside the first 10 balls. He tries to loft Archer through the line over mid-off, but the ball gets big on him and he spoons a simple catch to mid-off.

Tushar Deshpande under the pump! The shot of the over was the wristy flick to pick a perfectly acceptable length ball on middle and leg over deep backward square leg. Except for the second ball, where he charged down the pitch to swing to the hills and got a thick edge to the third man boundary, all others have been authentic shots. DC 33/0 in 2 overs.

Sanju Samson won the toss and opted to bowl as Rajasthan Royals look to bounce back from two straight losses, against Delhi Capitals at Arun Jaitley Stadium.

Samson explained the chasing trend among teams as the primary factor behind his decision. They were unchanged from the XI that played RCB at home three days ago.

Axar Patel, the DC captain, too said he would've bowled first because of dew. DC are still without Faf du Plessis, who has a groin strain that has now forced him to miss three games.

It meant another opportunity for Australia opener Jake Fraser-McGurk, who has four single-digit score in five innings so far this season.

A win will take second-placed DC to the top of the standings. RR, meanwhile, are third from bottom, with just two wins in six games, and will jostle in the mid-table should they win.

Delhi Capitals XI: Jake Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel, Karun Nair, KL Rahul (wk), Axar Patel (capt), Tristan Stubbs, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Mitchell Starc, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohit Sharma

DC subs list: Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Rizvi, Darshan Nalkande, Donovan Ferreira, Tripurana Vijay

Rajasthan Royals XI: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson (capt, wk), Nitish Rana, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Wanindu Hasaranga, Jofra Archer, Maheesh Theekshana, Sandeep Sharma, Tushar Deshpande

RR subs list: Shubham Dubey, Yudhvir Singh, Kumar Kartikeya, Akash Madhwal, Kunal Singh Rathore

By Nagraj Gollapudi