The Rajasthan Royals registering their seventh win of the ongoing DLF Indian Premier League (IPL) confirmed their place in the semi-finals. Shane Warne’s team on Sunday evening playing in front of the home crowd against Delhi Daredevils put a great show in departments of the game and win the match by three wickets.
In the whole tournament keeping unharmed the winning record at home, the Royals first restricted Daredevils under 160 (to be exact 156) and then batted well, especially the Australian Shane Watson who clubbed 74 off just 40 balls after bowling a great spell claiming two wickets.
Though the match later turned a hard-hitting contest as Delhi managed to dismiss Royal’s top order batsmen including Yusuf Pathan (8 of 13 ball), Graeme Smith (24 of 27), Mohamed Kaif (1), Ravindra Jadeja (6 of 6 balls) but Watson’s innings led the team to reach the winning target.
His superb innings constitutes five boundaries and five sixes that took away the game from the reach of Delhi. Daredevils’ Amit Mishra was the most successful bowler taking two wickets while Farveez Maharoof and Virender Sehwag shared one each. However, it was Glenn McGrath who some how restricted Rajasthan in taking attacking stand in the beginning conceding only 12 runs in his 4-over spell.
Earlier batting first Delhi openers both Gautam Gambhir and Sehwag did try to establish a cautious start but fall to some good bowling. Sehwag departs early leaving the scoreboard at 47/1 in 6th over. The tournament top scorer Gambhir only could contribute 31 of 23 balls. However, a good middle-order contribution from AB de Villiers (20 of 22), Tillakaratne Dilshan (18* of 15) and lower-order F. Maharoof‘s 39 of just 16 set a target of 157 for Rajasthan.
Teams
Rajasthan Royals: Graeme Smith, Niraj Patel, Yusuf Pathan, Shane Watson, Mohammad Kaif, Ravindra Jadeja, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Shane Warne (C), Mahesh Rawat (W), Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.
Delhi Daredevils: Virender Sehwag (C), Gautam Gambhir, Shikhar Dhawan, AB de Villiers, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Dinesh Karthik (W), Farveez Maharoof, Amit Mishra, Yo Mahesh, Glenn McGrath, Pradeep Sangwan.
Daredevil Show by Ganguly
In the other match overnight, Sourav Ganguly’s impressive 91 off 57 balls drove Kolkata Knight Riders to a 23-run win over the Deccan Chargers. A win was essential for Riders and a captains’ knock by Sourav kept their hopes alive for the semi-final berth.
Today’s schedule: May 12, 2008
Kings XI Punjab vs Bangalore Royal Challengers Time: 20:00 (IST) Venue: Punjab Cricket Association Stadium, Mohali – Chandigarh
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