Rajasthan Royals kept making mistakes, and the Delhi Capitals kept capitalising on them. Result — the Capitals emerged victorious by five wickets, at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.

The victory, with four balls to spare, keeps the Capitals afloat in the playoffs race, though their chances are slim. They have just one more game remaining in the league phase, in which they need to win against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens next Sunday, and then hope for the best.

For the Royals, who suffered their third straight defeat, they have made their situation tougher and now need to beat both Lucknow Super Giants and Mumbai Indians to breathe easy.

The Royals, put into bat, were strongly placed to comfortably go past 220 as they were motoring along at 161/2 in the 15th over, courtesy of Dhruv Jurel and skipper Riyan Parag. That was after Vaibhav Sooryavanshi had given them the initial momentum. Yet, the Royals lost their way, as the Capitals bowlers, led by Mitchell Starc (4/40), made a superb comeback. They allowed the Royals only 32 more from thereon, restricting the visiting team to 193/8.

During the run chase, the Capitals enjoyed a huge slice of luck when KL Rahul, on nought then, was dropped in the very first over at short fine leg by Yash Raj Punja off Jofra Archer's bowling. The quality player that Rahul is, he used that reprieve to contribute 56 off 42 balls, while his opening partner, Abishek Porel, smashed a 31-ball 51 that was massive in helping the Capitals race to 105/0 in 10 overs.

The Bengal left-hander did well to find the gaps for his seven boundaries, besides striking Archer for a huge six that landed on the roof.

The Royals, thanks to Archer in particular, still clawed their way back into the game. But poor fielding and the debatable decision to hand the ball over to Donovan Ferreira cost them the advantage.

Part-timer Ferreira went for 16 off that 18th over, reducing the equation to 19 off 12 balls for the Capitals. Skipper Axar Patel and Impact Player Ashutosh Sharma, who took their team home, were also aided by the Royals' slow over rate going into the final over with only four fielders allowed outside the circle. With only seven to get, Ashutosh finished it off with a four and a six.

Three-wicket over

Things looked ominous for the Capitals during the 72-run third-wicket partnership between Jurel and Riyan. Captain Axar brought Starc back into the attack in the 15th over, hoping for a wicket.

Starc, expensive in his first two overs with Royals openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Sooryavanshi taking him on, broke the Jurel-Riyan stand, and also accounted for Ferreira and Ravi Singh. Smart variation of pace did the trick for Starc in that game-changing over, which was key to limiting the Royals below 200. The left-arm speedster first took pace off the ball to have Riyan caught at long-on, with Axar taking a brilliant catch leaping forward.

The very next ball had a bit of extra pace into it, as Ferreira got his timing wrong to perish in the deep. Thereafter, in the penultimate ball of that over, Starc again took pace off and bowled a cutter to trap the left-handed Ravi plumb in front.

In his final over, Starc struck again with the wicket of Impact Player Dasun Shanaka.