New Delhi, May 7 (IANS): Jake Fraser-McGurk and Abishek Porel slammed fifties in contrasting fashion, while Tristan Stubbs applied finishing touches to the innings with a 20-ball 41 as the trio’s efforts propelled Delhi Capitals to reach 221/8 in 20 overs against Rajasthan Royals in Match 56 in Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Tuesday.

While Fraser-McGurk enthralled everyone with a 19-ball fifty, Porel found boundaries consistently to hit a 36-ball 65. It is just the eighth time that the DC openers got fifties in an IPL match. Moreover, this instance happened in New Delhi for the first time since 2015 -– when Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer hit fifties as openers.

Despite a slowdown in the middle overs, Stubbs slammed three fours and as many sixes in his 41 off 20 balls to ensure the 200 mark was breached in the first innings of an IPL 2024 game here for the fourth consecutive time. DC will hope 221 is enough to get two points as they seek to keep themselves in contention for a playoff spot.

For RR, off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was the pick of bowlers with his 3-24. Trent Boult began by testing Fraser-McGurk from around the wicket angle and was even hit on the box once. But Fraser-McGurk ended the opening over by chipping a length ball over mid-off for six.

After Porel lofted and punched down the ground off Sandeep Sharma for a brace of fours, Fraser-McGurk brought out a lofted straight drive, slash and mishit to take a six and two fours off Boult in the third over.

Fraser-McGurk’s takedown of Avesh began in the fourth over when he got going after getting a four off an inside edge. Staying leg-side of the ball, he hammered, sliced, lofted, drove, and hit through the line with ease twice to get his fifty in 19 balls by hammering 28 runs in the over.

His fun was ended by Ashwin, as he smacked a full toss straight to cover, followed by Shai Hope's run-out due to Sandeep getting a deflection on the ball going to the non-striker’s end. Abishek dazzled with his leg-side boundaries and got his first fifty of the season with a pulled six off Avesh in the 11th over.

But RR bounced back as Axar Patel holed out to long-off against Ashwin, followed by Porel slicing to backward point against the off-spinner. After Rishabh Pant’s misbalanced slog-sweep was caught by a deep backward square leg off Boult, DC looked in danger of falling short of 200.

Stubbs and Gulbadin Naib had other ideas up their sleeves – to get a flourishing finish for DC. Naib smoked Chahal twice over long-on for six and four respectively, Stubbs brought out reverse-sweep, and paddle sweep for back-to-back boundaries and finished the 21-run over with a massive slog sweep over deep backward square for six.

Though Naib was outclassed by a slower ball from Boult, Impact Substitute Rasikh Salam got consecutive fours on back-to-back scoops to take DC past 200. Stubbs smacked Sandeep for back-to-back sixes in the final over, before the pacer trapped the batter lbw with a pinpoint yorker, followed by Kuldeep Yadav's run-out on the last ball of the innings as DC went past 220.

Brief scores:

Delhi Capitals 221/8 in 20 overs (Abishek Porel 65, Jake Fraser-McGurk 50; Ravichandran Ashwin 3-24) against Rajasthan Royals