New Delhi, May 8 (IANS): Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel slammed fifties in contrasting fashion, while Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bowled superb spells as Delhi Capitals kept alive their hopes of making playoffs in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 with a 20-run win over Rajasthan Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday evening.

Following fifties from Fraser-McGurk and Porel, Tristan Stubbs gave the finishing touches to the innings with a 20-ball 41 to propel Delhi Capitals to 221/8. In reply, Kuldeep Yadav and Mukesh Kumar bowled decisive spells of 2-25 and 2-30 respectively to restrict RR to 201/8 in 20 overs.

The win sees DC jump to fifth place in the points table and they are now tied with LSG, SRH and CSK at 12 points. It is also the second straight time that RR, despite a brilliant 86 from captain Sanju Samson, have failed to complete a chase and need to wait longer to seal their Playoff spot.

Khaleel Ahmed struck in his first over as he had Yashasvi Jaiswal miscuing a slower bouncer to mid-off. Sanju Samson upped the ante with sublime timing on his loft, drive, flat-batted smashes, punch, flick and piercing the gaps in cover with precision to hit five fours and three sixes in the power-play.

But RR lost Jos Buttler in the last over of the six-over phase, as he chopped onto his stumps off Axar Patel, meaning his catch being dropped by Tristan Stubbs didn’t become costly for DC. With Axar and Kuldeep operating in tandem, DC forced a slowdown by giving 25 runs in overs 7-10, though Riyan Parag got two sixes and a four.

That effort paid off as Parag was castled by a slower ball from Rasikh Salam which hit the top of off-stump. Samson went on to get his fifth IPL 2024 fifty in 28 balls by clearing his front leg and smacking Kuldeep over long-on for six off a free hit. Sitting deep in the crease, Samson hit Rasikh for six over long-on, followed by cutting and muscling him for four and six respectively.

With 91 runs needed off 42 balls, Samson just cleared cover off Ishant for four, before Shubham Dubey punched and muscled the pacer for four and six respectively to take 17 runs off the 14th over. Khaleel giving away four wides in an 11-run 15th over meant the equation for RR became 63 runs off 30 balls for the win.

Samson’s fine knock came to an end in dramatic circumstances when Shai Hope took a screamer of a catch at long-on, just millimetres away from the boundary rope off Mukesh. Though he walked up to the umpire in protest, it was in vain and Samson had to depart for 86.

From there, DC came back in the match as Shubham Dubey holed out to long-on off Khaleel. Kuldeep trapped Donovan Ferreira plumb lbw and had Ravichandran Ashwin holing out to long-on in his final over. Despite a slow-over rate penalty in the final over, where DC could field only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle, Mukesh castled Rovman Powell, which was enough to get DC a crucial win.

Earlier, Fraser-McGurk enthralled everyone with a 19-ball fifty, while Porel found boundaries consistently to hit a 36-ball 65. It was just the eighth time DC openers got the fifties in an IPL match. Moreover, this instance happened in New Delhi for the first time since 2015 – when Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer hit fifties as openers.

Despite a mid-overs slowdown, Stubbs slammed three fours and as many sixes in his 41 off 20 balls to ensure the 200-run mark was breached in the first innings of an IPL 2024 game here for the fourth consecutive time. For RR, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of bowlers with his 3-24.

Trent Boult began by testing Fraser-McGurk from around the wicket angle and was even hit on the box once. But Fraser-McGurk ended the opening over by chipping a length ball over mid-off for six.

After Porel lofted and punched down the ground off Sandeep Sharma for a brace of fours, Fraser-McGurk brought out a lofted straight drive, slash and mis-hit to take a six and two fours off Boult in the third over.

Fraser-McGurk’s takedown of Avesh began in the fourth over when he got going after getting a four off an inside edge. Staying leg-side of the ball, he hammered, sliced, lofted drive, and hit through the line with ease twice to get his fifty in 19 balls by hammering 28 runs in the over.

His fun was ended by Ashwin, as he smacked a full toss straight to cover, followed by Hope's run-out due to Sandeep getting a deflection on the ball going to the non-striker’s end. Abishek dazzled with his leg-side boundaries and got his first fifty of the season with a pulled six off Avesh in the 11th over.

But RR bounced back as Axar holed out to long-off against Ashwin, followed by Porel slicing to backward point against the off-spinner. After Rishabh Pant’s misbalanced slog-sweep was caught by deep backward square leg off Boult, DC looked in danger of missing out on 200.

Stubbs and Gulbadin Naib had other ideas up their sleeve – to get a flourishing finish for DC. Naib smoked Chahal twice over long-on for six and four respectively, Stubbs brought out reverse-sweep, and paddle sweep for back-to-back boundaries and finished the 21-run over with a massive slog sweep over deep backward square for six.

Though Naib was outclassed by a slower ball from Boult, impact substitute Rasikh Salam got consecutive fours on back-to-back scoops to take DC past 200. Stubbs smacked Sandeep for back-to-back sixes in the final over, before the pacer trapped the batter lbw with a pin-point yorker, followed by Kuldeep Yadav's run-out on the last ball of the innings as DC went past 220.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 221/8 in 20 overs (Abishek Porel 65, Jake Fraser-McGurk 50; Ravichandran Ashwin 3-24) beat Rajasthan Royals 201/8 in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 86; Kuldeep Yadav 2-25, Mukesh Kumar 2-30) by 20 runs