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Cutting's big break for Rajasthan

Queensland quick in the thick of the action

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Ben Cutting had a wild night on his Indian Premier League debut, helping the Rajasthan Royals to a 62-run win over the struggling Delhi Daredevils and cementing their place in the top four.

With Shane Watson sitting out for a match, Steve Smith took the captaincy for Rajasthan and was gifted first use of the Ahmedabad pitch when Kevin Pietersen chose to bowl. 

Ajinkya Rahane (64 from 50) and Sanju Samson (40 from 25) gave the Royals' innings impetus but it was when Cutting and James Faulkner came together in the 18th over that things took off. 

Cutting's opportunities were limited but he launched one towering six out of Sardar Patel Stadium, while Faulkner continued his late-order power hitting with three huge sixes as he plundered 23 from just eight balls.

Cutting then had a shocking introduction to fielding in the IPL, dropping a catch on the boundary on the third ball. The tall Queenslander was left with no excuses, making his ground in plenty of time, but put the chance down.

The reprieved batsman, Mayank Agarwal, then rubbed salt into Cutting's wound, taking his first two balls for boundaries.

Luckily for Rajasthan the drop wasn't to cost them too dearly. Faulkner, in his one over for the night, had Agarwal caught at mid-off by Steve Smith. 

Cutting's second over was tighter, keeping Pietersen tied down, and he redeemed hismelf on the boundary with a catch in the next over to dismiss Dinesh Karthik. Pietersen was going nowhere fast, using up 17 balls before he was clean bowled by Bhatia. 

Returning for the 12th over, Cutting again struggled for the right length, going for two consecutive boundaries before a brilliant piece of fielding off his own bowling ran out Jadhav with a direct hit from the covers.

The Queenslander finally picked up his maiden IPL wicket, a fast inswinging yorker pegging back the leg stump of Shahbaz Nadeem. 

"It was nice to get one out of the way because I’ve been here a couple of times and it’s good to finally play my first IPL game," Cutting said after the match, admitting he was feeling nervous about the match.

"This was the first cricket game I had after four or five months. I am happy that the rusty beginning was followed by a few good things in the game."

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Watson (c), Stuart Binny, James Faulkner, Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, Steve Smith, Brad Hodge, Fajat Bhatia, Tim Southee, Dhawarl Kulkarni, Abhishek Nayar, Kane Richardson, Ben Cutting, Karun Nair, Unmukt Chand, Iqbal Abdulla, Deepak Hooda, Dishant Yagnik, Kevon Cooper, Vikramjeet Malik, Ankit Sharma, Rahul Tewatia, Ankush Bains, A Mishra, Pravin Tambe.

Delhi Daredevils: Kevin Pietersen (c), Dinesh Karthik, Murali Vijay, Mohammad Shami, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Quinton de Kock, Manoj Tiwary, Jaidev Unadkat, JP Duminy, Ross Taylor, Kedar Jadhav, Rahul Sharma, Mayank Agarwal, Laxmi Ratan Shulka, Jimmy Neesham, Wayne Parnell, Shahbaz Nadeem, Saurabh Tiwary, Siddarth Kaul, Rahul Shukla, Jayant Yadav, HS Sharath, Milind Kumar.