The third match under the Twenty20 format in Indian Premier League for 2008 was played in between the Delhi Daredevils and the Rajasthan Royals. The match was a Day Night Match and was played on the lush green grounds of the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium at Delhi. The Rajasthan Royals won the toss and decided to bat in the first innings of this third match of IPL Twenty20. Taruwar Kohli and Yusuf Pathan were the opening batsmen for Rajasthan Royals. Expectations did not meet the flying balls and super runs and instead quick wickets were witnessed in the first innings. Wickets fell down regularly and no one was really staying on the wickets apart from Ravindra Jadeja and Dinesh Salunkhe who contributed 29 and 26 runs respectively. The scorecard came to 129 in 20 overs with the pair of Salunkhe and Trivedi staying on the pitch for the last 2.5 overs.
Super bowling by Delhi Daredevils with 2 wickets each for Maharoof and Bhatia with a very low economy rate of 2.75 and 4.25!
In came the power horse of
Delhi Daredevils with Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag as opening batsmen. Picking up speed right from the first over, the scorecard was moving up and up with every ball which was played and with 7 fours and 1 six, Gambhir stayed on the pitch till the winning stroke. Sehwag also did a good start with 3 fours but got bold out by Watson. Then Dhawan took to the pitch and delivered 8 fours in 41 balls and contributed 41 runs to the total score. Poor bowling from
Rajasthan Royals resulted into 10 extra runs and good strike rate from Gambhir and Dhawan led to their victory with a winning score of 132 runs.
Delhi Daredevils had won the match with 9 wickets in hand and 29 balls remaining.
Watson from RR took the 1 wicket of Sehwag, but Trivedi and Salunkhe gave a high economy rate of 10.66 and 11 runs per over. Farveez Maharoof won the Player of the Match award for his excellent bowling for 4 overs in which he gave only 11 runs at an economy of 2.75 and bagged 2 wickets as well!
Delhi Daredevils took the lead by 2 points from this match.