JAIPUR – Shane Warne’s Rajasthan Royals thrashed Delhi Daredevils by six wickets to pocket their second successive victory in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday. Chasing a stiff 152, Rajasthan rode on fine knocks by Rahul Dravid and Johan Botha to overhaul the target with nine balls to spare at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. The usually sedate Dravid struck a quickfire 38 off 31 balls and South African Botha continued his fine form with the bat, scoring an unbeaten 39 with four fours.
Ross Taylor (18 not out) capped off a fine victory for Rajasthan with a four and a six in the penultimate over to delight a sizeable home crowd. Delhi slumped to their second defeat in as many matches after having lost to Mumbai Indians in their opening match.
Delhi were in early trouble after skipper Virender Sehwag won the toss and elected to bat but opener David Warner and Venugopal Rao posted responsible half-centuries to pull their side from the pits. Sehwag was dismissed off the third ball of the first over when he edged Aussie quick Shaun Tait to Dravid in the slips. Tait returned to send back Aaron Finch (11) in his second spell before Warne dismissed Unmukt Chand and Naman Ojha in the same over to reduce Delhi to a shaky 36-4. Warner fought back with a 44-ball 54 and Rao top-scored with a superb 60 off 40 balls, containing four fours and four sixes to take Delhi to a competitive total.
Australian spin legend Warne impressed the most among the bowlers, finishing with 2-17 but Tait proved expensive with his two wickets coming at the cost of 40 runs off four overs. Brief Scores: Delhi Daredevils 151-6 in 20 overs (V. Rao 60, D. Warner 54; S. Warne 2-17, S. Tait 2-40) lost to Rajasthan Royals 152-4 in 18.3 overs (J. Botha 39 not out, R. Dravid 38) by six wickets.
Kolkata beat Deccan: Jacques Kallis hit his second half-century in a row to set up a nine-run win for Kolkata Knight Riders against Deccan Chargers on Monday. Kallis, 35, hit seven fours and a six in his 45-ball 53 as Kolkata piled on 163-4 before restricting Deccan to 154-8 off 20 overs on a slow Eden Gardens track. This was the first victory for Kolkata in the Twenty20 tournament after having lost to Chennai by two runs in their opening match last week.
Kallis also picked up four catches to cap a fine day in the middle. Left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdullah gave Kolkata an early breakthrough, removing Ishank Jaggi in the third over before Rajat Bhatia grabbed the key wicket of skipper Kumar Sangakkara (16) to reduce Deccan to 53-3 in the ninth over. Deccan could never really recover from the early setbacks, succumbing to their second defeat in as many matches despite a fighting 48 by Bharat Chipli. Abdullah finished with 3-24 while Bhatia and Jaidev Unadkat took two wickets each. Kallis, opening the innings, gave a flying start to Kolkata after captain Gautam Gambhir won the toss and elected to bat.
The all-rounder raced to the 50-run mark with a six off his South Africa teammate JP Duminy but was out the next ball as he attempted to clear midwicket again. Gambhir, who batted at an unusual number six against Chennai, promoted himself up the order and shared 43 runs off just 26 balls with Manoj Tiwary (30 not out) for the third wicket. Gambhir (29) was bowled by legspinner Amit Mishra, the most impressive among Deccan bowlers with two wickets for 19 runs off his fours overs. Big-hitting Yusuf Pathan hit a typically aggressive 22 off 15 balls in a late assault to prop up Kolkata’s total.
Brief scores:
Kolkata Knight Riders 163-4 in 20 overs (J. Kallis 53, M. Tiwary 30 not out, G. Gambhir 29; A. Mishra 2-19) beat Deccan Chargers 154-8 in 20 overs (B. Chipli 48; Iqbal Abdulla 3-24, R. Bhatia 2-29, J. Unadkat 2-36)
