Not very often this IPL has witnessed a match where the fast bowling on display has overshadowed the big hits. Wednesday night in Dubai changed that forever, and unexpectedly, because the wicket was slow and low enough for Shreyas Iyer of Delhi to choose to hit. Rajasthan captain Steve Smith admitted that he too would have done the same because Dubai’s wicket looked so dry, but Jofra Archer would show why that factor doesn’t make a difference to his pace.
First ball of the game, thrown at 144km / h, Archer smashed through Prithvi Shaw’s defense and rearranged his stumps. Delhi Capitals rallied from the backhand, posting an average total of 161/7 in 20 overs thanks to the fifty from Shikhar Dhawan and Captain Shreyas Iyer. But Archer conceded just 19 of those runs in his four overs, simultaneously starting three of those wickets.
Archer’s second change was even faster than the first. One of those balls, well over 150 km / h, had a desperate Ajinkya Rahane caught in the middle. He would eventually finish his quota of overs just as he started it, with a wicket (Marcus Stoinis), but he also excelled with his point balls. No one had thrown more points than Archer before this game, and he increased his reputation with 14 scoreless balls on Wednesday.
Only one bowler has taken more wickets than Archer’s 12 in this IPL. Delhi’s Kagiso Rabada had 17 wickets before the game, and defending a low total was going to hinge on the speedy South African’s performance. It didn’t start very well as Rajasthan starters, World Cup winners Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, beat Rabada by one limit each on their first over.
Rabada’s compatriot, Anrich Nortje, smashed that stand with Buttler’s stumps just as he was starting to look dangerous. And this was done by Nortje with a delivery of 156.3 km / h, possibly the fastest in any IPL. That was at the beginning, but Nortje’s pace or aim hadn’t slowed down either. On the 18th, he launched Robin Uthappa with a 150 km / h ball.
Rabada was still without a wicket when he returned for his last over, on the 19th, with RR needing 25 12-ball runs. After conceding 25 runs of his first three, Rabada gave up just three runs as he cleared Archer’s wicket to put Delhi on the brink of victory. That victory was concluded by rookie Tushar Deshpande, who kept his nerves and the night’s story going.
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