Published: May 03, 2015, 09:42 PM (IST)
Edited: May 03, 2015, 11:59 PM (IST)
In the 500th game of the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rajasthan Royals (RR) put up 189 for two against Delhi Daredevils (DD) at the Brabourne Stadium. RR’s Ajinkya Rahane and Karun Nair stitched together a strong partnership to ensure that they went on to get a good score. This is RR’s first game at the Brabourne Stadium, which becomes their second home after Ahmedabad in the IPL 2015. READ: IPL celebrates 500th game
In conditions with a bit of help for the seamers, DD won the toss and chose to bowl. For this game, they brought in Gurinder Sandhu, to make his IPL debut. As a result, Imran Tahir had to be benched. On the other hand, RR recalled James Faulkner and included Rajat Bhatia. Juan Theron and Ankit Sharma had to make way. Considering the conditions, one would say that the teams made good choices. Live Scorecard: Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2015
Shane Watson and Rahane had a quiet start as they took their time to get used to the conditions. In fact, Watson struggled to begin with before he took the attack. Rahane was more attacking and maintained the tempo right through. In tandem, they put up 52 before Watson was caught behind by Kedar Jadhav off Angelo Mathews. RR promoted Nair to No. 3 and he then went on to build a solid stand with Rahane. Live Updates: Rajasthan Royals vs Delhi Daredevils, IPL 2015
DD had a tough time on the field. Wicketkeeper Jadhav took time to adjust to the extra bounce and had a testing time. There were many fields through the innings and also a few dropped catches. One of the commentators attributed it to the different lighting facilities at the venue. But, it did cost DD quite a bit as they failed to strike and dent RR through their innings.
Those lapses benefited Rahane and Nair big time as they went on to play normal cricketing strokes to build the RR innings. There were times when they walked across the stumps to target the leg-side but it was largely a classy display. The 113-run stand was a delight to watch and put RR on course to a very good total for RR. Rahane remained unbeaten on 91 and helped RR finish very well. He also regained the Orange Cap.
Brief scores:
Rajasthan Royals 189 for 2 in 20 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 91*, Karun Nair 61; Nathan Coulter-Nile 1 for 38, Angelo Mathews 1 for 27) vs Delhi Daredevils.
(Nishad Pai Vaidya is a Correspondent with CricketCountry and anchor for the site’s YouTube Channel. His Twitter handle is @nishad_45)
