From the iSport Cricket Paddock: iSporter Akshay Iyer is pleased with yet another win of the Rajasthan Royals. Read his post-match analysis here!
Yusuf Pathan’s blitzkrieg against Mumbai Indians may have been in vain, but the Baroda all-rounder ensured there wouldn’t be any heartbreak as another brilliant innings set up an eight-wicket victory for Rajasthan Royals against defending IPL champions Deccan Chargers in Ahmedabad on Friday night. With this win, the Royals have jumped from sixth place to third in the points table.
The Royals had a nightmarish start to their campaign in IPL-3 losing their first three matches, but now have a hat-trick of wins and are looking confident and stronger with each outing. The facile victory against the Chargers was set up by the bowlers and after the opening batsmen had set the foundation, Yusuf came out all guns blazing for the Royals. The Royals’ bowlers had done extremely well to restrict the Chargers to 148 for 9 with Shaun Tait and captain Shane Warne being the most impressive.
Chasing a sub-par total of 149 can often be tricky and opening batsmen are aware that the loss of early wickets can put the pressure back on the team batting second. And, for the second match in a row, the Royals were given a good start at the top by Michael Lumb and Naman Ojha, who put on 54 runs for the first wicket in the Power play overs. Lumb, who had a nightmarish start to his Royals’ career, was the more dominant of the pair as he hit two boundaries in the first over bowled by Chaminda Vaas and then followed it up by whacking four consecutive balls of RP Singh’s second over (4th of the innings), to put the Chargers on the back foot. At the other end, Ojha was at sea against the Chargers’ attack, and though he hit a six, the wicket-keeper batsman never did look comfortable in the middle, and his misery was ended by Chargers’ captain Adam Gilchrist who stumped him off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha’s bowling.
Ojha’s dismissal saw Yusuf coming to the middle at No. 3, and when he started his knock with a six over the straight boundary, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the Chargers. Yusuf has been troubled by short-pitched bowling at the start of his innings in IPL-3, but the absence of a hostile pacer in the Chargers’ ranks helped the attacking batsman dictate terms, as he hit the hapless bowlers all over the Motera Stadium. While the Yusuf show was on, Lumb (45) played the sheet anchor role at the other end, before he was run out following a horrible misunderstanding in the 12th over with the Royals still needing 48 runs to win.
Any hope the Chargers had of clawing their way back in to the match was quickly ended by Yusuf, who continued to hit massive sixes and he scored his 50 off only 23 balls. Yusuf, who was named Man of the Match, finished the match in style smashing another six over the straight boundary to remain unbeaten on 73 (34 balls; 2x4; 8x6), as the Royals won with 26 balls to spare.
The Royals also had a good start with the ball as Sumit Narwal, who replaced Munaf Patel, had Gilchrist caught by Yusuf at cover in the fourth ball of the match. Though Herschelle Gibbs hit two sixes off the second over bowled by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Andrew Symonds cracked three boundaries off Narwal’s third over (6th of the innings), the Chargers failed to dominate the Royals’ bowling and the regular fall of wickets didn’t help their cause either.
Warne had been a pale shadow of his heydays with the ball in the first five matches of IPL-3, but against the Chargers he turned back time as he bamboozled the batsmen with his bag of tricks and also choked the run flow. The Australian leg-spinning legend got into the act with the fourth ball of his spell when a loopy flighty delivery drew the dangerous-looking Gibbs out of the crease and Naman Ojha whipped off the bails in a flash. Warne finished with figures of 4-0-15-1, and he was also at his inspirational best in his role as Royals’ captain.
Tait (3-22) continued his good form from the previous match against Kings XI Punjab as his sheer pace made him a handful for the Chargers’ batsmen, especially T Suman, whose stumps were knocked over by a full late inswinging delivery by the Australian slinger.
The Royals’ fielding for the most part was brilliant, though there was one dropped catch that could have proved costly. Jhunjhunwala was the star as his brilliant pick up-and-throw from long-on resulted in the run out of Andrew Symonds; he then followed this up with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end from backward point that found Venugopal Rao short of the crease. Paras Dogra also had a direct hit from cover to cut short Vaas’ stay in the middle. The blemish on the field was courtesy Adam Voges on the deep midwicket boundary, who dropped a sitter off Rohit Sharma when the Chargers’ vice-captain had 30 runs to his name. Rohit (49) was finally dismissed in the 20th over when he was caught by Lumb at the short third-man region to give Tait his third wicket of the innings.
Rajasthan Royals will now hope to continue the winning momentum in their next match as well!
The Royals had a nightmarish start to their campaign in IPL-3 losing their first three matches, but now have a hat-trick of wins and are looking confident and stronger with each outing. The facile victory against the Chargers was set up by the bowlers and after the opening batsmen had set the foundation, Yusuf came out all guns blazing for the Royals. The Royals’ bowlers had done extremely well to restrict the Chargers to 148 for 9 with Shaun Tait and captain Shane Warne being the most impressive.
Chasing a sub-par total of 149 can often be tricky and opening batsmen are aware that the loss of early wickets can put the pressure back on the team batting second. And, for the second match in a row, the Royals were given a good start at the top by Michael Lumb and Naman Ojha, who put on 54 runs for the first wicket in the Power play overs. Lumb, who had a nightmarish start to his Royals’ career, was the more dominant of the pair as he hit two boundaries in the first over bowled by Chaminda Vaas and then followed it up by whacking four consecutive balls of RP Singh’s second over (4th of the innings), to put the Chargers on the back foot. At the other end, Ojha was at sea against the Chargers’ attack, and though he hit a six, the wicket-keeper batsman never did look comfortable in the middle, and his misery was ended by Chargers’ captain Adam Gilchrist who stumped him off left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha’s bowling.
Ojha’s dismissal saw Yusuf coming to the middle at No. 3, and when he started his knock with a six over the straight boundary, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the Chargers. Yusuf has been troubled by short-pitched bowling at the start of his innings in IPL-3, but the absence of a hostile pacer in the Chargers’ ranks helped the attacking batsman dictate terms, as he hit the hapless bowlers all over the Motera Stadium. While the Yusuf show was on, Lumb (45) played the sheet anchor role at the other end, before he was run out following a horrible misunderstanding in the 12th over with the Royals still needing 48 runs to win.
Any hope the Chargers had of clawing their way back in to the match was quickly ended by Yusuf, who continued to hit massive sixes and he scored his 50 off only 23 balls. Yusuf, who was named Man of the Match, finished the match in style smashing another six over the straight boundary to remain unbeaten on 73 (34 balls; 2x4; 8x6), as the Royals won with 26 balls to spare.
The Royals also had a good start with the ball as Sumit Narwal, who replaced Munaf Patel, had Gilchrist caught by Yusuf at cover in the fourth ball of the match. Though Herschelle Gibbs hit two sixes off the second over bowled by Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Andrew Symonds cracked three boundaries off Narwal’s third over (6th of the innings), the Chargers failed to dominate the Royals’ bowling and the regular fall of wickets didn’t help their cause either.
Warne had been a pale shadow of his heydays with the ball in the first five matches of IPL-3, but against the Chargers he turned back time as he bamboozled the batsmen with his bag of tricks and also choked the run flow. The Australian leg-spinning legend got into the act with the fourth ball of his spell when a loopy flighty delivery drew the dangerous-looking Gibbs out of the crease and Naman Ojha whipped off the bails in a flash. Warne finished with figures of 4-0-15-1, and he was also at his inspirational best in his role as Royals’ captain.
Tait (3-22) continued his good form from the previous match against Kings XI Punjab as his sheer pace made him a handful for the Chargers’ batsmen, especially T Suman, whose stumps were knocked over by a full late inswinging delivery by the Australian slinger.
The Royals’ fielding for the most part was brilliant, though there was one dropped catch that could have proved costly. Jhunjhunwala was the star as his brilliant pick up-and-throw from long-on resulted in the run out of Andrew Symonds; he then followed this up with a direct hit at the non-striker’s end from backward point that found Venugopal Rao short of the crease. Paras Dogra also had a direct hit from cover to cut short Vaas’ stay in the middle. The blemish on the field was courtesy Adam Voges on the deep midwicket boundary, who dropped a sitter off Rohit Sharma when the Chargers’ vice-captain had 30 runs to his name. Rohit (49) was finally dismissed in the 20th over when he was caught by Lumb at the short third-man region to give Tait his third wicket of the innings.
Rajasthan Royals will now hope to continue the winning momentum in their next match as well!
Set as favorite
Comments (0)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide commentsWrite comment
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
