Tim Southee carved a nerveless boundary through the covers to take Royals to victory off the final ball of the innings.
James Faulkner, the dangerour finisher, fell to a wrong one from Tahir with 7 balls to go. Royals left needing 12 from the last over with 3 wickets left.
Deepak Hooda skied Tahir to fall after a whirlwind 54 off 25 balls at the stroke of the penultimate over.
Rahane managed to undo 39 balls of focus with a costly step-out to Imran Tahir and lost his bails after 47 runs. Royals now need 67 from 32 with Faulkner fresh at the crease.
Even as Ajinkya Rahane anchored the innings from the top, the Royals lost three wickets in the first 10 overs. Steve Smith, the dangerman, was sent back cheaply by Amit Mishra and the Royals managed 74 runs at the halfway mark of their innings.
Mathews, in the form of his career, cracked 27 off 14 and Duminy connected a couple of sixes in the last over to reach 44 to take DD to 184/3 from their 20 overs.
Yuvraj Singh bludgeoned some trademark short-arm jabs for a 16-ball 27, but fell to a short ball that got high on him. DD have 141/3 on the board with 3 overs left. Meanwhile, captain J.P. Duminy is anchoring the innings with a sedate but stable stay at the crease. Angelo Mathews is in now.
Shreyas Iyer smashed his way to 40 off 29 deliveries to push DD to 93 till the last ball of the 11th over before being snaffled by a slower one from Chris Morris.
Riding on Mayank Agarwal's 21-ball 37, Delhi Daredevils got off to a flier after being put in to bat by the Rajasthan Royals.at the Feroze Shah Kotla on Sunday. He was finally undone by Pravin Tambe, and Delhi Daredevils reached 46/1 after the first five overs.
DD, who will be looking to end their losing streak from last season, have drafted in Angelo Mathews, Jaydev Unadkat and Manoj Tiwary for CM Gautham, Domnic Muthuswami and, strangely, Albie Morkel — the lone star in DD's last match. The Daredevils lost their previous match, against Chennai Super Kings, by one run despite Morkel's unbeaten 73.
RR is unchanged from their last win against Kings XI Punjab.
