In one of the ultimate climax unlike the two semi-finals of DLF Indian Premier League, the Rajasthan Royals emerged victorious with a thrilling three-wicket victory over Chennai Super Kings on the very last ball; one ball and one run to win.
Chasing a target of 164, the Royals were eyeing for eight runs on the last over bowled by L. Balaji with nerve-racking moments as each bowl bowled and each run scored; the 55,000 spectators at DY Patil Stadium were all at standstill till the last ball.
The target, not an impressive one but all-rounder Yusuf Pathan, the man of the match, scripted a memorable win for a team which started its journey as underdog and for a least expensive franchise in the first ever IPL tourney.
Pathan first took three crucial wickets in his bowling spell and then did a blistering knock of 56 off 39 ball including 4 sixes and 3 boundaries to land his team at home. It was his fourth fifty in the match.
Earlier batting first, Chennai Super Kings only managed to put a total of 163 on the board. With no such blazing start the opening pair only contributed a 39 runs until the first wicket fell on the sixth over to Y. Pathan. Parthiv Patel’s 38 came from 33 balls; however Pathan strikes again as A.Morkel departed in the 13th over adding only 16 off 13 balls.
It was Suresh Raina’s gutsy 43 off 30 and skipper MS Dhoni’s 29 off 17 which provide Chennai fans with some reason to cheer for. However, they just could not direct the pace of scoring in the slug over due to some wicket-to-wicket bowling by Sohail Tanvir (40/1), Shane Watson (29/1) and Yusuf Pathan (22/3).
Royals’ innings too tumbled initially with three wickets in the first seven overs; Niraj Patel (2 off 11 balls) and Kamran Akmal (6 off 7) fell quietly but it was Yusuf Pathan (56 off 39) and Shane Watson (28 off 19) who keep the tempo alive and their innings came in rescue of Rajasthan.
In fact Chennai did well to come back to the game by taking three quick wickets in terms of Watson, M Kaif and Jadeja but Captain Shane Warne and the purple cap winner for his brilliant bowling Sohail Tanvir did their best to remain at the crease and hit the winning run.
In the end, Royal Rajasthan with the captaincy of Shane Warne no doubt is the deserving winner emerging from the ground and touching the sky with some great concert of Twenty20 cricket. Certainly T20 lovers will wait for such exciting cricket to come up in the years to come.
Teams:
Rajasthan Royals: Niraj Patel, Swapnil Asnodkar, Kamran Akmal (W), Shane Watson, Mohammad Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja, Sohail Tanvir, Shane Warne (C), Siddharth Trivedi, Munaf Patel.
Chennai Super King: Parthiv Patel (W), Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (C), Chamara Kapugedera, Subramaniam Badrinath, Albie Morkel, Manpreet Gony, Lakshmipathy Balaji, Muttiah Muralidaran, Makhaya Ntini.
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