Ajinkya Rahane slammed the quickest half-century of IPL 2023 to back up the well-oiled effort of CSK’s spinners to orchestrate a seven-wicket win over Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede. Ravindra Jadeja and Mitchell Santner picked five wickets between them to leave MI with an underwhelming total. The Rahane-steered chase was then completed with 11 balls and seven wickets to spare, keeping MI winless after two games.
In the initial fixture on Saturday, Rajasthan Royals broke no sweat in clinching victory over Delhi Capitals at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in Guwahati. These are early days in the tournament but they will be delighted with the consistency that they have shown so far. Delhi Capitals, on the other hand, will be sweating now. They look listless and clueless. David Warner, their skipper, has gotten two fifties but hasn’t looked at his fluent best. The spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel also haven’t been able to exert any kind of pressure. Nortje has been expensive and the list keeps going on and on.
Trent Boult made the most of the new ball to push Delhi Capitals on the backfoot in a steep chase of 200. The required run rate has already ballooned to 11 with Capitals trying to recover from 36 for 3. Earlier, Jos Buttler bashed 79, Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a sprightly 60 and Shimron Hetmyer produced a cameo of 39* off 21 deliveries.