East Delhi Riders posing with DPL trophy© X (Twitter)
East Delhi Riders clinched a thrilling three-run win over South Delhi Superstarz to win the inaugural Delhi Premier League T20 in New Delhi. A late assault from Mayank Rawat (78 not out off 39) including seven fours and six sixes powered East Delhi Riders to 183 for 5 before three wicket hauls from Simarjeet Singh and Raunak Waghela sealed their intense win on Sunday night. The South Delhi Superstarz faltered early in the run chase. Despite being on course with their run rate, they lost the dangerous duo of Priyansh Arya (6 off 2) and Ayush Badoni (7 off 5) to Bhagwan Singh and Simarjeet Singh respectively.
Impact player Kunwar Bidhuri (22 off 19) was also caught and bowled by Mayank Rawat to finish the powerplay at 57/3.
Sumit Mathur (18 off 15) was the next batsman to go after he constructed a 22 run partnership with Tejaswi Dahiya who completed a half century.
Vision Panchal smashed a nine-ball 25 with three sixes and a four but was dismissed by Raunak Waghela to leave South Delhi Superstarz at 109/7 in 13.5 overs.
With Tejaswi Dahiya regularly finding the boundary, the South Delhi Superstarz needed 26 runs off 12 balls.
Dahiya launched a maximum off Simarjeet in the penultimate over but was removed two balls later.
In the final over, Digvesh Rathi (21 not out off 16) hit a six and two fours but South Delhi Superstarz finished short at 180/9 in 20 overs.
Opting to bat, the East Delhi Riders lost both openers in the powerplay and were 27/2 in 4.5 overs.
Himmat Singh (20 off 20) and Hardik Sharma (21 of 16) briefly steadied the ship with a 24-run partnership.
Rawat ramped up the intensity and combined with Kavya Gupta (16 off 12) for a 47-run partnership in 35 balls.
Gupta became Kuldip Yadav's second wicket of the night to leave East Delhi Riders at 116/5 in 15.4 overs.
Rawat steered East Delhi Riders through the death overs bringing up a 34-ball half century.
Supported by Harsh Tyagi (17 off 12) at the other end, Rawat tore into Ayush Badoni in the final over smashing five sixes (6,0,6,6,6,6) to prop their total.
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