A 'Royal' victory for Rajasthan
The Rajasthan Royals registered their fifth consecutive win in the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) by defeating the Chennai Super Kings by 8 wickets. Electing to bat at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium at Jaipur, the Chennai Super Kings lost both their openers in the space of the first five balls of the match courtesy Sohail Tanvir.
The Chennai side kept losing wickets at regular intervals and of all their batsmen, only four registered double digit runs with Albie Morkel (42), the only one showing determination to stay at the crease against a tight Rajasthan bowling line-up spearheaded by Tanvir.
At the fall of captain MS Dhoni’s wicket, Suresh Raina and Albie Morkel put on a 44-run partnership but this was the highest they could manage as the rest of the middle order showed no inclination to give the in-form Morkel company. Just as Tanvir started with the wickets of the openers, he ended off with the wickets of the tail-enders. The Chennai side folded its innings at 109 runs.
All the Chennai batsmen looked clueless against the Pakistani seamer and he ended up with 6 wickets for 14 runs in his 4 overs, the best bowling figures in any Twenty20 cricket match played so far.
His name was pasted all over the Chennai scorecard as apart from the 6 wickets he claimed as a bowler, he was also involved in 2 catches off the bowling of Munaf Patel.
Needing a run rate of 5.8 to win, Chennai started their innings in grand style with a 78-run first-wicket partnership between Graeme Smith and Swapnil Asnodkar. The only other glitch came when Yusuf Pathan was out cheaply. But Shane Watson made sure he gave Graeme Smith company till the end of the Rajasthan innings.
Rajasthan won the match comfortably with over 5 overs to spare. This win takes them to the top of the IPL points table.
All teams have now played 6 matches in the IPL. Rajasthan is followed by the Delhi Daredevils, Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Super Kings to complete the first four spots on the points table.
The next match of the IPL will see the Bangalore Royal Challengers go up against the Kings XI Punjab at the Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore today.