Flavour of the season Rahul Tewatia did not prove to be third time lucky in what turned out to be an incredible death-overs performance by the Delhi Capitals pace attack in their 13-run victory in an IPL game on Wednesday.
Anrich Nortje (2/33) was breathtakingly fast, bowling in the mid-150 kmph with toe-crushing yorkers while Kagiso Rabada's (1/28) international experience proved to be pure gold dust leaving rookie Tushar Deshpande (2/37) to defend 21 runs in his debut IPL game, which he did with elan.
The result was Rajasthan Royals finishing on 148/8 chasing Delhi Capitals' par score of 161/7 as Tewatia couldn't hit the troika of Rabada, Nortje and Deshpande.
Royals lost the plot in the last five overs partly due to selfish approach from senior player Robin Uthappa (32 off 27 balls), who needlessly ran-out last-match hero Riyan Parag.
While skipper Shreyas Iyer's shoulder injury would keep Capitals on tenterhooks, 12 points from 8 games will keep them in good stead as they look to quickly clinch a play-off place. Rajasthan Royals with 6 points from 8 games stay in seventh place and are in danger of missing another play-offs.
While DC were splendid at the death, it was Ravichandran Ashwin's artistry during the back 10 with clever variations of pace and flight that brought Delhi back in the game. Ashwin finished with figures of 1 for 17 and bowled 10 dot balls out of his 24 balls - on par with the ever-improving Nortje.
Earlier, Shikhar Dhawan and skipper Iyer hit stroke-filled half-centuries but Delhi Capitals lost momentum towards the end to be restricted to 161 for seven after opting to bat first. The last five overs of the Delhi Capitals innings yielded only 32 runs and they lost four wickets.
