Delhi Daredevils made 150 runs for the loss of three wickets in the allotted 20 overs. Daredevils made many changes in their team. Daniel Vettori was swapped for Dirk Nannes, Rajat Bhatia went out for Amit Mishra and Pradeep Sangwan, who had a miserable last game, was replaced by Avishkar Salvi.

After Virender Sehwag, captain of Delhi Daredevils, won the toss and opted to bat, his team set a target of 151 runs for Rajasthan.

AB de Villiers batted magnificently to score an unbeaten 79. De Villiers, who smashed 8 boundaries and a six in 55 balls, contributed 48 runs from 21 balls in an unbeaten fourth wicket stand with Dinesh Karthik (23 off 11 balls).

Other significant contributions were made by Tillakaratne Dilshan (33) and Dinesh Karthik (23 not out). Munaf Patel got two wickets and Johan Botha took one for Rajasthan Royals. Rajasthan made only one change by bringing back medium-pacer Amit Singh in the team.

In reply, Rajasthan never threatened the Delhi total and were restricted to 9-136 from their 20 overs. Johan Botha top-scored with 37 and Ravindra Jadeja added 24 to briefly offer Rajasthan some hope, but their dismissals sparked off a late collapse with leg-spinner Amit Mishra taking three wickets in one over, including two in successive balls, to return figures of 3-33.

Mishra was supported by seamers Aavishkar Salvi and Farveez Maharoof, who took 2-19 and 2-27, while both Nehra and Nannes grabbed 1 wicket each.

When the chase began Royals were hardly in the game. Graeme Smith went for a duck, Rob Quiney scored only 6, in-form Naman Ojha fell for 9. The only partnership to talk about was the 55-run stand for the 4th wicket.

This loss dented Royals’ chances to the extent that, like many teams in fray, even they have to win their next two matches and probably wait and see who figures where in the net run rate table.

Defending champions Rajasthan Royals are in 5th place in the standings on 13 points but still have a chance of making the semi-finals.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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