Rajasthan Royals got their second win of the Indian Premier League when it defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by 22 runs. Three wickets in three balls from Rajasthan Royals early on derailed Kolkata Knight Riders’ chase could not get on the tracks properly as Royals recorded their second win in two matches. Royals seized the advantage early on and held it until the end, with only Manoj Tiwary providing resistance.
Royals have never lost a match when they have put on a score of over 160 and that did not change as they defended mercilessly at their fortress in Jaipur. They engineered another poor batting performance from Kolkata who have lost both matches so far. Small consolation will be that they managed to score more than 100 in this innings. Having put on a comfortable score, Royals’ captain Rahul Dravid chose to open the bowling with left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan but it was seamer Amit Singh who made the first breakthrough. He used a clever change of pace to trap Jacques Kallis into playing early and scooping an easy catch to Rahul Dravid at mid-off. Singh’s next delivery angled away from Gautam Gambhir, who could not resist a poke and was caught behind. Royals completed a team-hattrick when Chavan trapped Brendon McCullum in front of the stumps off the next ball. With their three biggest names out and only eight runs in the bank, Knight Riders were going to need something special to compete. If one person was to provide it, that person should have been Yusuf Pathan.
Scores: Rajasthan Royals 164 for 5 (Hodge 44, Lee 2/29) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 143 (Tiwary 59, Cooper 3-28) by 22
Jadeja routs Deccan Chargers: Ravindra Jadeja led Deccan Chargers with his all-round performance to get his team 74 runs win against Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League. Super Kings recovered in style from a patchy display in their opening game against Mumbai Indians. While Jadeja’s name was all over the scorecard, it was Dwayne Bravo’s late blast with the bat that took the game away from Chargers.
Scores: Chennai Super Kings 193 for 6 (Jadeja 48, Bravo 43*) beat Deccan Chargers 119 (Jadeja 5-16) by 74 runs.
