Ajinkya Rahane-led Rajasthan Royals, put in to bat first after Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss, started slow and lost two quick wickets in the form of DÁrcy Short and Ben Stokes within the first powerplay. After 6 overs, the score is 52/2. At the crease are Ajinkya Rahane and Sanju Samson. Making a comeback to the Indian Premier League in its 11th season (IPL 2018) after serving a two-year suspension, Rajasthan Royals are taking on Delhi Daredevils at their home turf of Sawai Man Singh stadium in Jaipur. Gambhir’s decision of fielding first in this crucial match comes as no surprise, given that all the matches played in IPL 2018 so far have been won by the teams batting second.
This match is important for both teams as each is still in the hunt for its first win of the season. While Rajasthan Royals were handed an embarrassing 9-wicket defeat by Sunrisers Hyderabad in their opening match on Monday, Delhi Daredevils were crushed in theirs by Kings XI Punjab following a record-breaking innings by K L Rahul on Sunday.
Rajasthan Royals Playing XI: Ajinkya Rahane (c), D Arcy Short, Sanju Samson, Ben Stokes, Rahul Tripathi, Jos Buttler (wk), Krishnappa Gowtham, Shreyas Gopal, Dhawal Kulkarni, Jaydev Unadkat, Ben Laughlin
Delhi Daredevils Playing XI: Colin Munro, Gautam Gambhir (c), Shreyas Iyer, Vijay Shankar, Rishabh Pant (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Rahul Tewatia, Chris Morris, Shahbaz Nadeem, Trent Boult, Mohammed Shami
Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils would want to quickly forget the disappointments from their respective opening games. But they would do well to take their learnings and work on their flaws. Both teams will definitely have a hard look at their combinations and batting order. On paper, Delhi Daredevils – further bolstered by the joining of Glenn Maxwell – definitely look the stronger team.
Rajasthan Royals innings: Over by over updates: Over 1: Trent Bolt opens the bowling attack for Delhi. Hint of movement from the pitch. Ajinkya Rahane and Dacy Shorts open for Rajasthan. Flicked to square leg by Rahane, two runs. Decent line by Bolt. Rahane flicks one off the pads, picks up three. Shorts takes a single. End of the over. RR 6-0 Over 2: Shahbaaz Nadeem into the attack. Four, first ball and it is a loose one. Shorts hits it for a four. Oh, what a mess they've made. Some confusion in calling and a direct hit to the keeper end. That is the end of Shorts. Two run outs for Shorts in two games. Rahane was looking for two, Shorts was not in the mood, hence the dismissal. Ben Stokes join Rahane. Three singles to Rahane in the over. End of over: RR14-1 Over 3: Bolt continues. Almost had Stokes! No movement of feet at all, trying to play from the crease, beaten by the line. That's a cracking cover drive by Stokes for four. Good comeback. Another single. Short ball, right over the head. End of the over: RR 19-1 Over 4: Chris Morris introduced by Gautam Gambhir. Nice deliveries. Only a couple of singles. Short of length ball, dispatched into the stands by Stokes. First six of the night. He picked up the length very quickly. Easy single for Stokes. Rahane swings and misses. End of over: 28-1 Over 5: Bolt comes in for his third over. What an angular delivery, edged and pouched behind the wickets. Ben Stokes departs for 16. Stokes did not move his feet and paid the price. Sanju Samson joins Rahane. Confident shot from in-form Sanju Samson, gone for four. He has picked up his innings from where he left in the previous match. Here's another one from Sanju, cracking shot, in front of the square for six! And now an intelligent single. What confidence. Pulled and just short of the fielder. Four by Rahane. End of over: 43-2 Over 6: Morris back into the attack.Sanju flicks for 3. A great fielding effort by Nadeem. Single to Rahane. Risky single by Sanju, challenging the man on mid-off. Easy single. Good on part of RR to rotate the strike. Another single behind the wicket by Sanju. Eight runs from the final powerplay over. End of powerplay: RR 51-2 scoring at 8.5 runs per over. Rajasthan Royals innings at a glance after 6 overs: Asked to bat first after Delhi Daredevils captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss, Ajinkya Rahane and D’Arcy Short opened the batting for Rajasthan Royals. In the first over Rajasthan Royals openers gave RR a decent start as they looked cautious of Trent Boult’s swinging deliveries. Shabaz Nadeem came in to bowl in the second over and was hit for a boundary off the very first ball. But Short’s shots were few and, like in the first match against SRH, he was rut out by Vijay Shanker’s direct hit while taking a second run off the second ball of the 2nd over. Ben stokes came to bat after Short’s dismissal. Boult gave away 5 runs in his second over as the bowl was swinging and it was hard for Stokes and Rahane to score big. Things weighing more in favour of Delhi Daredevils so far. Chris Morris replaced Nadeem for the 4th over of the innings and he did not look as threating as Boult: He gave away 9 runs, including a six over the square, which was hit by Ben Stokes, in his over. However, a swinging Trent Boult delivery got rid of Stokes, who was looking good after his rusty innings against SRH, as Rishab Pant took a diving catch. Sanju Samson, who came to bat after the Stokes’ wicket, dispatched Boult for a four at point and a six over square leg in the 5th over the innings. Even though they lost Ben Stokes’ wicket, Delhi Daredevils gave away 15 runs. Samson looked in a good touch as he was timing the bowl well. After giving 9 runs in his first over, Chris Morris pulled it back a little for Delhi Daredevils and gave away 8 runs off his next. Here are a few things you should know about the Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils match being played at Sawai Mann Singh Stadium in Jaipur, the two squads and what to expect from Match 6 of IPL 2018: Key Batsmen in Rajasthan Royals team: Australian D’Arcy Short comes into IPL 2018 with a reputation to live up to as he was the top run-getter in T-20s this year with an batting strike rate of 150.38. RR need him to live it to the expectations and see the team off to a blazing starts as he often given teams he played for. Ben Stokes, the most-expensive player of IPL 2018, hasn’t been in the best of batting forms recently, but Rajasthan Royals will hope he can start hitting a few balls out of the park soon. Sanju Samson was the only shining light for the inaugural champions with a watchful 42-ball 49 against Sunrisers Hyderabad. But Rajasthan Royals need him to be in the top gear throughout his innings as the team has depth in batting and can afford their players to play aggressively. Key Bowlers in Rajasthan Royals: Rajasthan Royals bowling attack had plenty of variety, but they failed to translate that into success on the pitch. RR bowlers only managed to pick only one wicket against Sunrisers Hyderabad. Ben Stokes isn’t completely fit and might not bowl four overs always; hence Jaydev Unadkat, the most-expensive Indian player in the IPL 2018 auction, needs to step up to be the leader of the pack. Key Batsmen in Delhi Daredevils team: Colin Munro and Rishabh Pant, who should in the top three, are the most destructive batsmen in the Delhi Daredevils line-up. Glen Maxwell also joined the Delhi Daredevils ahead of the Rajasthan Royals clash and it is expected that he might get into the playing eleven right away. Colin Munro, who has scored 400 runs in T20s this year, has the strike of 189.57 while Rishabh Pant's career strike rate of 161.59 is the best among all the Indian batsmen with more than 1000 runs in T cricket. Delhi Daredevils' captain Gautam Gambhir will look forward to these guys to share the responsibility among them against Rajasthan Royals. Key bowlers in Delhi Daredevils team: No doubt Delhi Daredevils' bowling attack had weakened with Kasigo Rabada being ruled out of the IPL 2018 because of the injury. The likes of Mohammed Shami, Trent Boult and Chris Morris has to forget KL Rahul's onslaught in their previous game to give their best for the winning cause of Delhi Daredevils against Rajasthan Royals. While Amit Mishra – the second-highest wicket-taker in the IPL – has a fabulous record against Rajasthan Royals with 26 wickets in 16 matches at an average of 16.38 and Captain Gautam Gambhir will expect to add more to his wickets tally. How Rajasthan Royals played against Sunrisers Hyderabad: In the first match, Rajasthan Royals huffed and puffed to 125/9 after being asked to bat. Sanju Samson was the only shining light for the inaugural champions with a watchful 42-ball 49 as star batsman and skipper Ajinkya Rahane fell for 13 and only Rahul Tripathi (17) and Shreyas Gopal (18) managed to reach double figures. The second wicket did stand for 46 runs while the fourth-wicket stand stitched together 29 off just 13 deliveries. Both the partnerships could have shaped the innings well but failed miserably. Hyderabad bowlers proved to be hot for Rajasthan and what made matters worse was how their bowlers meekly surrended in the face of Shikhar Dhawan's 57-ball 78. Rahane on loss against Sunrisers Hyderabad and what needs to be done to escape defeat: Skipper Anjikya Rahane too would like to forget the outing where he failed with the bat, missed a sitter in slips and also gambled with batting only to see a complete rout of his team. "We thought on this wicket, 150-160 would have been ideal total because ball was doing the bit and medium pacers got good help. But, we didn't get that one partnership. I think we lost crucial wickets in between. Partnership was the key in between. I think foreigners who played, they are really good. D'Arcy Short, he did really well in Big Bash, did well for Australia recently, Joss Butler and Stokes, we all know how dangerous they are and Ben Laughlin is an experienced bowler in T20 cricket," Rahane said at the post-match press conference. How Delhi Daredevils played against Kings XI Punjab: Newly appointed captain Gautam Gambhir (55) led from the front but lacked support around him. Delhi's batting is not that strong either with lack of experieneced names effecting the middle order. Lokesh Rahul's 16-ball 55 -- fastest IPL fifty -- made matters worse for them but a cause of worry for Delhi is seamer Mohammed Shami going for a lot of runs as Delhi will want him to deliver alongwith New Zealand pacer Trent Boult. Delhi will start as favourites against Rajasthan but unlike their first match if the likes of in-form D'Arcy Short, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler or Ben Laughlin fire on the morrow, it could well be Rajasthan's field day at home as all the players have reputation of turning the game around. After 5 years, how Sawai Maan Singh Stadium prepared for Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils: After an endless wait, cricket is finally returning to the Sawai Man Singh stadium on Wednesday. It will be a memorable day in the history of Sawai Man Singh Stadium and the Pink City will be cheering on some great hits and catches once again. The tussle between the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) led to the discontinuation of matches in the SMS Stadium. The differences were sorted out earlier this year. While talking about pitch and ground condition, veteran curator Taposh Chatterjee said that they were hit hard by the RCA ban. Despite financial crunch we maintained the wicket and the outfield. There has not been much cricket on it but we have tried hard to sustain grass on it because it is this ingrown grass which binds the soil of the wicket. "It is not the 200 run kind of wicket but 160-170 would be achievable because ball would come nicely on to the bat. The bowlers would also have something for them. They might find good bounce out of this surface, said veteran curator Taposh Chatterjee. Ish Sodhi replaces injured Zahir Khan for Rajasthan Royals: New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has been signed by the Rajasthan Royals as a replacement for injured Afghanistan bowler Zahir Khan in the IPL 2018. Sodhi was picked from the Registered Available Player Pool (RAPP) list and this will be his first outing in the IPL. He has played 15 Tests, 22 One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and 26 T20I for New Zealand so far. Team Head to Head
| Matches | Rajasthan Royals(won) | Delhi Daredevils(won) | |
| Overall | 16 | 10 | 6 |
| Jaipur | 4 | 3 | 1 |
- The IPL will return to the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur for the first time since 2013.
- The Rajasthan Royals have an incredible record while playing at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium; they have a 24–9 win-loss record at the venue. Under Shane Warne, who wanted his team to treat their home ground as a ‘fortress’, RR won each of their seven matches in the inaugural season of the IPL.
- Ajinkya Rahane has scored more runs against the Delhi Daredevils than against any other IPL opponent; in 15 matches against DD, Rahane has an aggregate of 632 runs – which includes nine innings of 40 or more – at an average of 63.20.