Shaw leads the show for DD against Royals

New Delhi: Despite an early loss of wicket in Colin Munro (0), Prithvi Shaw (37* runs from 18 balls) gave a strong start to Delhi Daredevils in the powerplay (5 overs) in a rain-truncated match against Rajasthan Royals at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium here on Wednesday.

The match was delayed by one-and-half-hours and was cut short to an 18-overs affair due to persistent rain in the national Capital following a sandstorm in the evening.

Choosing to field first after winning the toss, Royals skipper Ajinkya Rahane made two changes to the line-up as D'Arcy Short and Shreyas Gopal came in for Ish Sodhi and Mahipal Lomror. Delhi's young captain Shreyas Iyer made a solitary change in the line-up by dropping spinner Rahul Tewatia for another tweaker in Shabaz Nadeem. The decision to bowl first initially seemed to be the right decision as Dhawal Kulkarni gave a perfect start to the Royals by removing dangerman Munro for a golden duck. The Kiwi batsman got caught behind by Jos Buttler after he nicked an in-swinging delivery by the Indian pacer.

An early fall of wicket brought extra pressure on the first-down Iyer, who cautiously oversaw the second over bowled by Jofra Archer but not before he shot a four on the fine-leg to open the boundary column for the Daredevils.

Patiently watching the proceedings from the non-striker end so far, Shaw finally opened his arm and went after wicket-taker Kulkarni. 16 runs off that over took the pressure off the home side as the duo struck 26 runs of the next two overs — bowled by Krishnappa Gowtham and Jaydev Unadkat respectively — to take Delhi to 48 for one at the end of reduced powerplay of 5 overs.

Shaw and Iyer picked 11 runs of the fourth over as the duo managed a boundary each.

In the fifth over, Shaw took charge by playing exquisite shots all-around the park off Jaydev Unadkat's first over to build a strong base for a big total.