In top gear: Jos Buttler provided the impetus at the top.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
Rajasthan Royals pulled off a clinical all-round performance as it beat Delhi Capitals by 57 runs to bounce back to winning ways in the IPL at the Barsapara Stadium here on Saturday.
Capitals were outplayed for most of the game as they fell to a third straight defeat while Royals wound up their ‘home run’ with a win.
Royals’ win was set up by a solid batting performance led by openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (60) and Jos Buttler (79), and backed up by a fiery Trent Boult and later on by spin twins R. Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal.
Boult struck twice in the first over — for a record-extending fourth time in the IPL — to rock Capitals’ chase, which failed to kick on, mostly because of a slow-paced fifty from skipper David Warner.
Belligerent: Jaiswal was the dominant of the openers as Royals set a stiff target.
| Photo Credit:
RITU RAJ KONWAR
After being sent in, Jaiswal and Buttler began in top gear, with the former smashing Khaleel Ahmed for five boundaries to gather 20 runs in the first over.
Jaiswal dominated the partnership as he raced to his fifty in 25 balls. The opening duo dealt mostly in boundaries as Royals gathered 68 runs in the PowerPlay.
The left-hander’s entertaining knock came to an end when he could only fend a Mukesh Kumar bouncer back to the bowler.
Breathing fire: Trent Boult scuttled Capitals chase with his double strike in the first over.
| Photo Credit:
RITU RAJ KONWAR
Capitals nudged their way back into the game in the middle overs with some tight bowling as Royals lost skipper Sanju Samson and Riyan Parag cheaply.
Buttler and Shimron Hetmyer shored up the innings for Royals with some masterful power-hitting as they got to 199, which in the end proved to be well beyond the reach of the struggling Capitals.
After Boult’s first-over double strike, the Capitals chase was reeled in by Ashwin and Chahal’s mastery of the ball as Royals recorded their second win of the season.