Mitchell Starc took 4-40 as Delhi Capitals waged defeat against Rajasthan Royals to keep their play-off hopes alive in the IPL on Sunday.
Starc claimed three scalps in a four-ball burst, including the scalp of skipper Riyan Parag (51), to restrict Rajasthan to 193-8 at Delhi’s home Arun Jaitley Stadium.
Rajasthan has added 47 runs in their second innings till the end of day two. Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (15) coming with a score of 46 off 21 balls, and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel (53), who finished his inning as top scorer for Rajasthan
Openers KL Rahul, with 56 and Abishek Porel (51) were involved in a stand of 105 to set the chase up before Delhi claimed victory with four balls to spare for their sixth win in 13 matches.
Jofra Archer and Brijesh Sharma took two wickets each for Rajasthan, but Delhi wobbled in their chase before skipper Axar Patel (34) and impact sub Ashutosh Sharma (18), whose six hit for the winning runs ended the match.
After 12 matches this season, Rajasthan has slipped from fifth to sixth as their hopes of a playoff finish were damaged with a sixth loss.
With three playoff spots remaining, with seven teams in contention, Delhi is now 7th in the 10-team table.
Only the top four teams after the conclusion of the league stage will qualify.
Earlier today, Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB), defending champions and the second positioned team in the points table, became the first side to qualify for the playoffs by beating Punjab Kings (PBKS) in a 23-run victory.
Delhi then also lost Lungi Ngidi who had Yashasvi Jaiswal out for 12 early, but the teenage wonder Sooryavanshi struck back with five fours and three sixes.
Sooryavanshi, who registered one century and two half-tons in this particular season, stitched 70 runs with Jurel before being dismissed by medium-pacer Madhav Tiwari at 49.
The Jurel and Parag kept pace but Starc rocked the Rajasthan middle-order with his two in two balls, including Parag and Donovan Ferreira, and a third in the over.
Jurel was anchor before falling in the 20th but Delhi’s attack, led by Starc and Ngidi, bowled tight spells to restrict Rajasthan from scoring only 33 runs off the last six overs and took six wickets.
Porel then added a sizeable century partnership with Rahul but once they were dismissed, Rajasthan fought back.
There was then a third-wicket stand of 75 between Aiden Markram and Darius Jagmohan which ended when the former was caught behind off Anrich Nortje in the 15th over with Delhi at 134-3, requiring 61 runs from just 33 deliveries.