Delhi edges Mumbai to keep IPL playoff hopes alive while Samson powers Rajasthan to win

NEW DELHI (AP) — Heavy hitting from Jake Fraser-McGurk and Tristan Stubbs helped Delhi Capitals hold off Mumbai Indians by 10 runs in a high-scoring Indian Premier League game on Saturday.

In the second game of the day, Sanju Samson powered league leaders the Rajasthan Royals to a seven-wicket win over Lucknow Super Giants.

Fraser-McGurk lashed 84 runs off only 27 balls and Stubbs contributed an unbeaten 48 off 25 as Delhi amassed 257-4 in 20 overs.

Tilak Varma led Mumbai’s reply with 63 off 32 but the visitors fell short at 247-9.

Delhi moved to fifth place, just outside the top four on net run-rate. Mumbai was ninth after its sixth loss in nine games.

Put into bat, Delhi made a fiery start. The openers smashed 114 runs off only 45 balls. Beside Fraser-McGurk, Abishek Porel scored 36.

The power play yielded 92-0 as Fraser-McGurk reached 50 off only 15 balls. He took another 34 runs off the next 12 balls faced but was out with a century in sight after pulling a Piyush Chawla googly straight to deep midwicket. Fraser-McGurk excited with 11 boundaries and six sixes.

Shai Hope added 41 off 17 balls, including five sixes.

Delhi crossed 200 in 16.1 overs and there was enough time to launch a death overs’ attack.

Stubbs took center stage, smacking six fours and two sixes, including 30 runs off the 18th over bowled by Luke Wood.

In reply to Delhi’s highest total of the season, Mumbai lost Rohit Sharma (8) and Suryakumar Yadav (26) relatively cheaply to Khaleel Ahmed.

Varma revived the chase with 71 off 39 balls, and skipper Hardik Pandya scored 46 off 24 balls, hitting three sixes. Varma hit four sixes and another four fours.

Pandya was out caught in the 13th over and Varma pushed on further. Tim David provided late sparks with 37 off 17 as Mumbai crossed 200 in 17.1 overs. But the target proved too high.

In Lucknow, visiting skipper Sanju Samson smashed 71 not out off 33 balls to help Rajasthan chase down the Super Giants’ 196-5 with an over to spare.

Samson’s fourth half-century of the season led Rajasthan to 199-3.

Dhruv Jurel contributed an unbeaten 52 off 34 balls.

Rajasthan got a speedy start from in-form openers Yashasvi Jaiswal (34) and Jos Buttler (24), who shared 60 off 35 balls.

But they fell in a span of three deliveries at the power play’s end.

Samson then anchored the innings intelligently, and with Jurel for company they powered the chase towards victory.

They combined for 121 runs off 62 balls, hitting six sixes and 12 boundaries. Four of those sixes were Samson’s, sending a reminder to the India selectors ahead of the T20 World Cup in June.

Earlier, Lucknow skipper Lokesh Rahul scored 76 off 48 balls to rescue them from 11-2 in two overs. They put up a par-plus 196-5 total.

Deepak Hooda chipped in 50 off 31 balls, adding 115 off 62 balls with Rahul.

Rajasthan opened a six-point gap to the chasing pack. Lucknow stayed fourth.

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