It is Abu Dhabi, where the important match between the Delhi Capitals and Rajasthan Royals took place and it is one of the largest grounds in the UAE.
RR winning the toss and choosing to bowl was one of the brave decisions taken against the in-form Delhi capitals during some of the prevailing extreme weather conditions in Abu Dhabi.
Thus, match no. 36 of IPL 21 started between the above-mentioned two teams who are looking in good shape since the start of the season.
A slow start of the season by Delhi batting first
Dhawan and Shaw’s opening for Delhi has been successful for most of the season this year. One of the greatest pairs opening in IPL opening for Delhi along with Mustafizur with the bowl for RR opening the attack with the bowl.
Just 6 runs of the first over, both were seen to be cautiously and carefully playing against one of most successful bowling from the capitals.
It was a constant change of bowlers that made the experimentation of Bowlers on the surface which was prominent and the inclusion of Lomor during the second over was a bold decision by Samson. Lomror gave away five runs at the end of 2nd over.
It was a great start by the Royals with the bowl. Tyagi the hero of the previous encounter took the dangerous-looking Dhawan in the fourth over giving away only three runs.
Some of the tight bowling from RR restricted the Capitals at 25 runs after the end of fifth overs along with a loss of two wickets. It was seen how new bowlers were coming into the attack for RR and it was Pant and Iyer who were moving ahead cautiously.
It was Shreyas Iyer for Delhi playing a super knock of 43 runs from 32 balls. Iyer and Pant with a decent partnership of above 60 which made Delhi set a target of 154/6 off 20 overs.
A decent total while the addition of 20 more runs would be surely fruitful but 154 on such a hot humid day considering the big ground is also something considerable.
Mustafizur Rehman from RR bowled superbly for the side by conceding just 22 runs off four overs along with taking two wickets with an economy of 5.50.
Tyagi was the most expensive along with the young Sakariya and they both took one and two wickets respectively.
The start that the Royals didn’t expect
It wasn’t Lewis today who opened for RR like the previous encounter but it was an unacceptable lineup that looked completely different from the RRas previous encounter.
It was Jaishwal and Livingstone who were opening for RR and Avesh Khan with the bowl for Delhi. Livingstone had to leave the crease after a bold dismissal by Khan, while Jaishwal had to leave scoring just five runs during the second over of the second innings due to a similar dismissal by the pacer Nortje.
After that Samson and Miller were in the middle with a huge responsibility for the Royals. It was Miller who got out during the fifth over of the second innings by Ashwin who was bowling superbly.
After Miller, it was Mahipal Lomror who played alongside Samson and played for 24 balls and scoring just 19 runs.
Samson was seen to be playing almost perfectly but at one end the wicket was continuously falling. He needed someone he could rely upon but after the dismissal of Lomror, the team seemed to fall rapidly.
The Skipper Sanju Samson for RR remained unbeaten at 70 runs from 53 balls with a strike rate of 132.08. At the end of 20 overs, RR could just score 121 runs losing six wickets.
All the bowlers who bowled for Delhi did their job decently. It was again a collective effort by the Delhi Bowlers which made them a better side for the evening. If not with the bat, it was with the ball that the Delhi Capitals dominated the 36th match of IPL 2021.