Yet another win puts Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royal on the top of the DLF Indian Premier League table. On Friday evening, the Royals outcast the Deccan Chargers by a convincing 8 wickets taking their tally of wins to 6 out of 8 matches they played so far.
Despite a stout effort from Aussie Adam Gilchrist who made 61 runs off 49 balls, the Chargers only managed to put a defending total of 140/8 off their 20 overs. The Royals in response started off in style as both the openers played brilliantly leaving much for the Deccan bowlers to charge for.
Smith (40 of 43) and Yusuf Pathan’s valiant 68 of just 37 set the platform for Royals to reach the target with 24 balls and 8 wickets to spare. From now onwards Hyderabad team which is dwelling on the bottom will hard to stage a comeback considering other teams point margin.
Earlier batting first the Chargers did have an even-handed chance with all signs of putting a good defending total but wickets tumble at regular interval especially after skipper Gilchrist departed in the 14th over bared all their chances of crossing the 150 runs mark.
Two easy wickets: Scot Styris (13 of 11) and Rohit Sharma (5 of 8) and further Afridi’s failure restricted the Chargers. It was now completely up to the bowlers to defend a total of 140 which was not an easy task considering the strong batting line-up of Royals.
Though RP Singh and Scot Styris bowled some tight spell but could not convert them into wickets. Pathan and Smith moved the scoreboard effortlessly without taking much risk. RP Singh and P. Ojha took one wicket each.
Deccan Chargers batting: Adam. Gilchrist c Rawat b Trivedi 61, H. Gibbs c Rawat b Patel 19, S. Styris c Warne b Pathan 13, Rohit. Sharma run out 5, S. Afridi c Patel b Warne 1, S. Bangar c Rawat b Watson 3, R. Teja lbw b Warne 6, V. Rao (not out) 23, R.P. Singh run out 2, P. Ojha (not out) 1.
Extras (lb-4, nb-1, w-1) 6; Total 140/8 (20-over)
Fall of wkts: H.Gibbs 61-1 (8), S.Styris 88-2 (12.2), A.Gilchrist 97-3 (13.3), S.Afridi 100-4 (14.2), R.Sharma 105-5 (15.4), S.Bangar 105-6 (16.2), Ravi Teja 126-7 (18.3), RP Singh 130-8 (19.1).
Rajasthan Royals bowling: Tanvir 4-0-39-0, Watson 3-0-22-1, Patel 4-0-28-1, Warne 4-0-20-2, Pathan 2-0-19-1, Trivedi 3-0-8-1
Rajasthan Royals batting: G. Smith c Ojha b R.P. Singh 40, Y. Pathan c Gibbs b Ojha 68, M. Kaif (not out) 17, S. Watson (not out) 5
Extras (b-1, w-10) 11; Total 141/2 (16.0 over)
Fall of wickets: Y.Pathan 109-1 (12.4), G.Smith 133-2 (15.3)
Deccan Chargers bowling: Vijaykumar 1-0-10-0, R.P. Singh 4-0-24-1, Styris 2-0-14-0, Ojha 4-0-47-1, Afridi 2-0-10-0, Bangar 2-0-20-0, Rao 1-0-15-0.
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