Jaipur back on winning track

In Match 30 of the DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) played at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium at Jaipur, the Rajasthan Royals registered its sixth win of the tournament by defeating the Hyderabad Deccan Chargers by 8 wickets.

The first encounter between these two sides at Hyderabad had resulted in a fight to the finish with Royals captain Shane Warne hitting some lusty, desperate blows off his former Aussie teammate Andrew Symonds to register an exciting win.

At Jaipur this time in a rematch, Shane Warne won the toss and asked his opposition to bat first. Adam Gilchrist, standing in for captain VVS Laxman once again, got the team off to a good start by some powerful stroke-play.

With Gilchrist (61), Herschelle Gibbs (19) kept him company at the crease for a while before departing. Scott Styris (13) came and put on a brief stand with the skipper but the Deccan batting order came down like a pack of cards soon after these two batsmen got out.

The middle order comprising of Rohit Sharma, Shahid Afridi and Sanjay Bangar accounted for just 9 runs and the scoring rate never really took off after the good start. Some desperate hitting towards the end of the innings by Venugopal Rao (23 off 11 balls) was the only reason they reached a respectable total of 140 at the end of the allotted 20 overs.

The Rajasthan Royals captain, Shane Warne led from the front picking up 2 wickets for 20 runs from his four overs.

Rajasthan came out to bat with both their openers continuing their good form in the series. Graeme Smith and Yusuf Pathan put on a partnership of 109 runs for the first wicket before Pathan (68) succumbed to the bowling of Pragyan Ojha. Smith (40) joined his fellow opener in the dugout a few overs later but not before ensuring Rajasthan its sixth win in the IPL from eight matches.

Shane Watson and Mohammad Kaif only completed the mere formality of overpowering the target with 4 overs to spare. Yusuf Pathan was awarded the Player of the Match for his heroic display with bat and ball that set the tone for Rajasthan’s victory.

This defeat puts the Deccan Chargers at the bottom of the points table along with the Bangalore Royal Challengers.

The next IPL match is scheduled to be played at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai where the MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings will vie for a win against the Yuvraj Singh-led Kings XI Punjab – a cracker of a contest in the offing on May 10.