Prithvi Shaw hit Washington Sundar for 4, 4, 4, 4 in the first four balls of the chase in a battle of impact players. Then Washington struck back, looping a delivery with plenty of overspin - the kind of ball that's rarely seen in T20 cricket, but now delivered with the hope of stemming the tide of runs giving way to the desperation of somehow getting a wicket - and forcing him to miss a lofted shot.
That first over set the tone for the Capitals' powerplay. They also lost David Warner early on, but they continued to bat hard because they had to and because Fraser-McGurk knew no other way. His smooth, unfettered golfer's swing was in perfect rhythm on this day, and Washington - given the unforgiving task of bowling two power overs - were at the receiving end of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 6 in the third over. Abishek Porel then smashed Pat Cummins through and over the off side with abandon in a 20-run fifth over, and the Capitals somehow kept themselves in the game.
Fraser-McGurk finally missed one off Mayank Markande in the seventh over, but despite that wicket, Capitals' chances of winning continued to grow, with Porel hitting three fours and a six off Shahbaz in the next over. At that point, the ESPNcricinfo forecaster gave them a 21.23% chance of winning, which was astonishing given the target they were chasing.
But that was more or less it, as their run chase ground to a halt after Markande - who had a similar effect to Kuldeep, conceding runs but inducing just enough fakes with his wristspin - stumped Porel in the ninth over.
Thanks in part to the skilful bowling of Natarajan, Cummins and Reddy - who varied their pace well as they bowled into the pitch and used the wide line outside off stump to good effect, particularly against Pant - and in part to the struggle for fluency that Tristan Stubbs and Pant had to endure on the day, the Capitals went nowhere. They scored just 68 runs off 67 balls from the start of the ninth over to the end of their innings. By the time Natarajan took three wickets in the 19th over to finish with figures of 4 for 19, the match was long over.