Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils competed in the 18th match of IPL 2009 at SuperSport Park, Centurion on 28th April 2009. This was a day-night match in which eventually, Rajasthan Royals won by 5 wickets with 9 deliveries to spare. Yusuf Pathan of the Rajasthan Royals was honored as the Man of the Match. As this was the first defeat of Delhi Daredevils in this championship, it may well prove to be a turning point in the tournament. The highlight of this match was a highly economical bowling by Munaf Patel who ended with figures of 4 overs, 1 maiden, 14 runs and 2 wickets. This was followed by a composed and restrained innings from Graeme Smith. He remained unbeaten on 44 off 46 deliveries with the aid of 5 fours. However, the most entertaining factor was a blitzkrieg from Yusuf Pathan. He came in to bat at the No. 7 position and in 30 deliveries clobbered 6 sixers and 3 boundaries on way to an unbeaten 62. 
de Villiers completes fifty
During the Daredevils innings, Patel bowled fantastically and this led to the opponents innings getting restricted to an achievable target. In all of their games in this tournament, the Royals have delivered disciplined performances in the bowling department and hence this was not a matter of worry. Still, considering that Delhi has an explosive top order, fans were sufficiently curious how the innings would proceed. Rajasthan was at an advantage due to poor shot selection by the Delhi batsman and the capacity of the bowlers to extract most of the conditions of the pitch. This caused Delhi being restricted to 49 for 4. Daniel Vettori (29) and AB de Villiers (50) displayed a revival for their team with a 56 run partnership. Towards the end, Mithun Manhas (23 not out) and Vettori bashed 25 runs in 2 overs. At the end of 20 overs, the Delhi Daredevils were 143 for 7.
Royals innings
In the 4th over, Rob Quiney was trapped by Ashish Nehra. Swapnil Asnodkar tried an impossible run and was run out. Paul Valthaty was caught by Vettori for 1. Rajasthan was tottering at 34 for 3. In the 11th over, Amit Mishra sent both Shane Warne and Ravindra Jadeja back to the pavilion. 64 for 5 was an abashing situation. In the 13th over, Pathan unleashed 19 runs and this was the turning point of the match. Thereafter, Pathan was completely brutal in his approach. On the other hand, Graeme Smith seemed poised to prove himself at home. He played his natural game and hit his 2nd four only in the 14th over. Pathan placed himself between Delhi and its win and Delhi could not hold on to the opportunities it had. Pathan could have been run out but Tillakratne Dilshan erred in his try. When 21 deliveries were balance, Pathan struck a ball at long-on but Pradeep Sangwan could not hold on to this catch and palmed it to the boundary and this sealed Delhi’s fate.