Guwahati: Delhi Capitals' 'Summer of Horrors' continued as they crashed to a 57-run loss against Rajasthan Royals, completing a hat-trick of one-sided defeats in this edition of Indian Premier League, here on Saturday.
While Yashasvi Jaiswal reaffirmed his status as the brightest talent among India's gen-next batters with a superb 60, Jos Buttler showed no signs of finger pain en route a chiselled 79 in Rajasthan Royals' challenging 199/4 after David Warner committed a tactical 'harakiri' by opting to field on a batting shirtfront.
The Australian couldn't be blamed as his pencil-thin Indian batting unit was put on its haunches as they managed only 142/9 in the end after being out-batted by the Royals openers with Shimron Hetmyer adding a bit of icing on the cake.
In the Royals innings, there were 23 boundaries and seven sixes while DC in their entire innings failed to hit a single six.
Royals thus earned their second win in three games, having lost a high-scoring thriller against Punjab Kings at this very venue.
Trent Boult (3/29 in 4 overs) then struck early. He got one to move a shade, squaring up Prithvi Shaw (0) and exposing his poor technique once again. The very next ball jagged back enough and found Manish Pandey (0) rooted to his crease for a plumb leg before decision. There was not much left in the game after that kind of horrendous start.
In three games, Shaw has been dismissed in three distinct fashions -- raw pace in the opener, well-disguised short ball rearing up in the second and old fashioned seam and swing in the third.
He would himself know that he has now fallen way behind in national team's pecking order after this inept performances game after game.
Warner (65 off 55 balls) scored his second half-century in three games but has been very 'Un-Warner' like where he has never looked like taking the game away from opposition.
Once Lalit Yadav (38 off 24 balls) was dismissed by Boult, in his second spell, it was all over for Delhi at the Barsapara Stadium.
Earlier, Jaiswal hammered a hapless Khaleel Ahmed (0/31 in 2 overs) into submission by crunching five boundaries in the opening over. His 31-ball innings laid the foundation before Buttler finished with a flourish. The English swashbuckler faced 51 balls.
The fate of DC bowlers could have been sealed in the first six overs, which yielded 68 runs along with 14 boundaries, but Kuldeep Yadav (1/31 in 4 overs), Mukesh Kumar (2/36 in 4 overs) and Rovman Powell (1/18 in 2 overs) did well to control the damage to some extent at the back-end.
