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In Match No. 62, between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), DC performed a double over Royals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, New Delhi. They have kept their hopes alive and made it difficult for RR. After this defeat, it is a do or die situation for Riyan Parag and his boys.
Coming into this match, Rajasthan Royals need two wins from their remaining three matches. DC won the match by 5 wickets in the last over of the game. Riyan Parag will be very upset with the way things have gone for him and the team tonight, including his poor fielding and a dropped catch.
RR qualifying scenario explained
Before this match RR had the best chance to qualify for the playoffs, but now they have to win their remaining games to qualify for the playoffs; Any mistake will lead them to possible elimination from the Men in Pink. If RR wins two games, they qualify without missing a beat.
However, if they win 1 more match, they will finish with 14 points. Historically, teams with 14 points can qualify for the fourth spot, but it is entirely dependent on whether the other mid-table teams (CSK, DC and KKR) are losing the remaining fixtures.
If the team loses all its matches, its campaign will end, as 12 points have never been enough to qualify in the 10-team era. PBKS, already placed fourth, has 13 points. RR plays the two bottom-placed teams, Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Mumbai Indians (MI) in their final game.
RR batsmen could not take advantage of the start
DC won the toss and invited RR to bat first. Axar Patel’s team made one change and Tripurana Vijay made his debut. On the other hand, Rajasthan Royals captain Riyan Parag returned while Ravindra Jadeja remained absent due to workload management and Ravi Singh made his debut for Rajasthan.
Royals got off to a great start with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Vaibhav Suryavanshi as Yashasvi could not convert his start into a big score and returned to the pavilion for 12 runs. Suryavanshi missed a half-century, but came back scoring 46 runs in 16 balls.
Ashutosh Sharma does the finishing work
Dhruv Jurel and Riyan Parag scored half-centuries by scoring 53 runs and 51 runs respectively. RR, who got a great start, could not convert it to 200+ in their 20 overs as the middle order and lower middle order failed to accelerate in the end and lost 6 wickets for the loss of 41 runs in the last seven overs.
Chasing the target, KL Rahul and Abhishek Porel made a partnership of 105 runs for the first wicket. Then a few wickets in the middle overs took the game back for the Royals. But Akshar Patel played a brilliant inning of 33 runs in 17 balls and remained unbeaten. Ashutosh Sharma once again did the finishing work, scoring 18* off 5 balls and winning the game for the home team.
Also Read: DC Qualification Scenario IPL 2026: Can DC still reach the playoffs after a win against RR?
