Imran Tahir gave Angelo Mathews 12 to defend off the final over with an inspired piece of spin bowling that accounted for the Man-of-the-Match Deepak Hooda (54 off 25) balls and ‘finisher’ James Faulkner but even that was not enough for Delhi Daredevils to end their losingstreak – now at 11 games – as Tim Southee drove Mathews for alast-ball four to give Rajasthan Royals a tense three-wicket win.
After bowling three good deliveries from around the wicket, Mathews conceded a boundary off the fourth with Chris Morris guiding a low full toss to the fine-leg fence. And with three required off the final ball, Mathews erred in length once again and allowed Southee to crunch it past the in-field on the off-side for a boundary, sparking celebrations from even the usually equanimous Rahul Dravid.
Chasing 184 was never going to be easy, especially against Delhi’s spin-twins, Tahir and Amit Mishra. After all, despite quick-fire innings from Shreyas Iyer (40 off 30), Mayank Agarwal (37 off 21) and JP Duminy (44 off 38), none of the Daredevils were able to score freely off either Pravin Tambe (1 for 18) or Hooda (0 for 20).
Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson added 35 in the opening four overs, the former picking 25 off the two overs bowled by Jaydev Unadkat and Nathan Coulter-Nile. The break in the scoring rate came immediately after Duminy introduced Mathews into the attack. Bowling with the wicketkeeper standing up to the stumps, the medium-pacer’s clever changes in pace accounted for a fidgety Samson, who picked out the deep midwicket fielder with a flick. Despite the loss of Samson, the in-form Steven Smith and Rahane ensured that the Royals were abreast with the required rate.
The introduction of spin turned the game back in Delhi’s favour. Mishra and Tahir combined to give only 35 runs from the next five overs as RR slipped from 50 for 1 in the seventh to 85 for 4 in the twelfth. Mishra accounted for the dangerous Smith, deceiving the in-form batsman in flight and forcing him to hit it straight down long-on’s throat. Karun Nair (20 off 12) and Stuart Binny (1 off 2) fell in the span of five balls to hand the hosts a semblance of control before the Hooda show got underway.
Hooda joined Rahane in the 12th over, when the required rate had touched 12. Duminy held back Tahir and Mishra and threw the ball to Yuvraj Singh, a ploy that backfired, somewhat. Hooda should have been run-out for 23 but for a slip up from Yuvraj, who failed to gather a throw after a misunderstanding between Rahane and Hooda, a key moment in the match.
Hooda made Daredevils pay for the lapse by slamming a 25-ball 54. When he was dismissed in the 19th over, the equation had reduced to 18 to win off 12. Tahir’s over appeared to have turned the game back in Delhi’s favour before an all-so-familiar feeling engulfed them after the final over.
DD 184/3 (JP Duminy 44*, M Agarwal 37, C Morris 2/35) lost to RR 186/7 (Deepak Hooda 54, A Rahane 47, I Tahir 4/28)
