Questions have often been asked about the high price Rajasthan Royals paid for Jaydev Unadkat. On Thursday night, however, he came up with a priceless performance in his first game of IPL-14.
Sensational spell
His sensational new-ball spell broke the back of the formidable Delhi Capitals batting line-up at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
And it was another expensive player — Chris Morris, the most expensive in IPL history, in fact — that got RR home by three wickets with an unbeaten 36 (18b, 4x6).
Chasing 148, RR needed 12 off the last over. Morris finished it in style, pulling Tom Curran over deep square-leg for the winning runs.
It was a remarkable effort from Morris after his side had been pegged back by some splendid seam bowling from Chris Woakes, Kagiso Rabada and Avesh Khan.
It took a fighting knock from David Miller (62, 43b, 7x4, 2x6) to repair the damage, but he perished attempting a third successive six against Avesh, leaving RR 44 to get off 25 balls with three wickets intact. Morris, his compatriot, took over.
After the twin loss on Monday — the closely fought match to Punjab Kings and Ben Stokes to injury — the men in pink could not have hoped for a better comeback.
Disciplined bowling and splendid fielding saw the DC batsmen struggle after being put in.
Remarkably, there wasn't a single six in the innings.
DC began dreadfully, losing the wicket of in-form Prithvi Shaw to the last delivery of the second over. He tried to hit an Unadkat slower ball across the line, through the leg side, and gave catching practice to Miller, the man who replaced Stokes, at backward-point.
Samson’s stunning catch
Off his next ball, Unadkat removed the other half of the DC opening pair that had set up the win against Chennai Super Kings with a century partnership. And it took a stunning catch from Sanju Samson to send Shikhar Dhawan back, the wicketkeeper leaping to his right to gather an attempted ramp one-handed.
Then Unadkat nearly had a hat-trick, but Rishabh Pant didn’t edge one that moved away.
In his next over, however, the left-armer caught Ajinkya Rahane off his own bowling.
Now, only one man could take DC to a competitive score.
He did. Pant made 51 off 32 balls before he was run out by a superb piece of fielding by Riyan Parag off his bowling.