NEWS
Follow UsDelhi Capitals (DC) stayed in the hunt for a place in the playoffs with a close-fought 20-run victory over Rajasthan Royals (RR) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, on May 7 (Tuesday). However, it came at the cost of a controversial moment.
RR were flying high, with skipper Sanju Samson (86) looking determined to finish the game off for his side and take his side back to the top spot on the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 points table. However, Samson was caught at the long-on fence by Shai Hope, whose feet were precariously close to the boundary ropes.
Upon inspection the third umpire was satisfied that Hope did not touch the ropes, but Samson was not convinced. While RR director of cricket Kumar Sangakkara has said that his side has "a different perspective" about the dismissal, DC assistant coach Pravin Amre lauds Hope's superb effort in the deep.
“We have to give credit to the way Hope judged the catch and balanced himself. And umpires are there, and they have so much technology. The umpire’s decision is final. It wasn’t an easy catch. He anticipated that very well. He told me that the ball came very fast at him,” Amre said after DC's 20-run victory over RR.
Amre also believes those extra 20-odd runs after getting to 200 proved pivotal and credited Tristan Stubbs' cameo with helping them to a match-winning total.
“When you have 220 on the board, the pressure is always on the team chasing. We batted well to get that 20 runs. We have to credit Stubbs for that. His 20-ball 41 was very important to the team,” Amre added.
However, the innings was set up earlier thanks to an explosive 20-ball 50 by Jake Fraser-McGurk, who is making a habit of doing it, and also Abishek Porel, who slammed his maiden fifty. Porel finished with 65 off 36, and Amre believes it was a special knock by the Bengal wicketkeeper.
"As a coaching group, we were very happy with how he was batting in the nets. He plays against new ball very well and in 2-3 games he got a chance to bat up, he did well – like he got 40-odd [41] against MI at number three. This fifty against RR was a special innings from him as once you get 78 runs in power-play, you get that momentum and to be there, Abishek played a very important role for the team," Amre noted.
"Winning by 20 runs is a good win on the Delhi wicket. We also wanted a leftie-rightie combination at the top and felt that Warner is not 100% fit. We can’t drop Jake and wanted Porel to go up as Prithvi can’t bat at places after number three. It was more of a technical call and it worked to be honest as we got 78 runs in first six overs, as on Delhi wicket, powerplay is always important," Amre further added.
Amre also praised DC's excellent death bowling - a phase where RR lost five wickets for just 42 runs. "RR needed 12 runs per over in their last five overs and Rasikh [Salam] bowling yorkers in the 19th over was something special. Again, Kuldeep [Yadav] bowling that important 18th over to get two wickets was so important.
"We do back Rasikh to come good as Mukesh is bowling well, Ishant [Sharma] is a veteran and Khaleel [Ahmed] is in World Cup stand-by. But he comes and delivers for us as sometimes on the Delhi wicket, pace doesn’t work as variation matters."
With the win, DC have jumped to fifth place in the IPL 2024 points table. They still have a chance of making it through to the playoffs. They will have to win their remaining two matches and hope a few results go their way, as explained here. They will be up against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) next on May 12 (Sunday).
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