By Suneer Chowdhary
Rajasthan chased down the Delhi total of 151 with clinical precision as they raced to their second win in as many games in the fourth season of the IPL.
Published: Apr 12, 2011, 07:23 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 12, 2011, 07:23 PM (IST)
Johan Botha of South Africa in action during the World Cup
By Suneer Chowdhary
Jaipur: Apr 12, 2011
Rajasthan chased down the Delhi total of 151 with clinical precision as they raced to their second win in as many games in the fourth season of the IPL.
On a track perceived as slow at the Sawai Man Singh stadium, 152 was a sizeable target. Rajasthan Royals came out aggressively, with an obvious plan to go after the bowling in the first six overs of the innings.
Ashok Dinda had a poor start to his first over when he sent down a couple of no-balls but recovered to concede only eight in that over. Morne Morkel, at the other end, drifted down the leg-side which went for four leg-byes but apart from that had only a single taken off him before Dinda’s third over started the exciting times for the fans.
An in-swinging delivery cut Rahul Dravid into half but the wicket-keeper also missed it and it went for four before the batsman flicked the bowler away in imitable Dravid-style to the fence. Amit Paunikar attempted a pull that went to the boundary as well before being bowled in the same over.
The wicket did not help the Delhi Daredevils in curtailing the run-rate. Dravid had come out with a surprisingly aggressive streak, one not associated with him as a straight six off Irfan Pathan delighted the home crowd. But in a bid to unsettle the bowler further, there were two more boundaries that he smashed to take the score to 41 for one in four overs.
Morkel conceded two in the fifth but Roelof van der Merwe failed in his attempt to curtail the run-rate, conceding 14 in his very first over. Strategic time-out was the way to go and in a way it helped the Daredevils in putting the brakes on.
Left arm spinner S Nadeem gave away only two runs in his first over this IPL before van der Merwe had Dravid first dropped and then caught off successive balls.
In a bid to overcome the stifling left-arm spinners, left-handed Ashok Menaria was sent up the order by captain Shane Warne. It was a beautiful piece of thinking by him and even better execution by Menaria, who smacked one six in each of the ninth, 10th and the 11th over to push the Royals to the driver’s seat.
At the half-way stage, Rajasthan were 86 for two, and even with Menaria falling to Pathan, only 60 were needed off 55 at that stage.
With Johan Botha walking in at the number three position again, there was a sense of calm that he brought with his experience. Even with Ajinkya Rahane’s dismissal off the best Delhi bowler on show, Morne Morkel, in the 16th over, the asking rate was less than six runs per over.
The Royals achieved it with utmost ease in the 19th over with Ross Taylor rounding off the target with a four and a six off Ashok Dinda.
Earlier, the Daredevils seemed to have learnt nothing from their collapse in their previous game against Mumbai Indians. Virender Sehwag slashed a boundary off the first ball he faced but edged one to slip off the second from Shaun Tait, who returned in the fifth over to get rid of Aaron Finch.
Only 30 came off the first six overs of the innings but in an attempt to up the scoring, Unmukt Chand and Naman Ojha played strokes that could best be described as appalling. Both fell to the guile of Shane Warne and at 43 for four in the ten overs, the Delhi Daredevils looked like they were heading to a repeat of the Mumbai Indians game.
It was only a matured half-century from Dave Warner, not a term one associates with him too much, and an aggressive one from Venugopal Rao that propelled the side to more than 100 in the last 10 overs of the innings.
Man of the match from the previous game Siddharth Trivedi went for 36 in his four overs as did Botha, while Shaun Tait finished with 2 for 40 off his four. Delhi ended with 151 for six in their 20 overs, a very good score given the circumstances and the pitch.
Brief Scores: DD 151 for 6 in 20 overs (Venugopal Rao 60, Dave Warner 54; Shane Warne 2 for 17, Shaun Tait 2 for 40) lost to RR 152 for 4 in 18.3 overs (Johan Botha 39*, Rahul Dravid 38, Ashok Menaria 22; Morne Morkel 1 foe 11, Ashok Dinda 1 for 34, Roelof van der Merwe 1 for 41, Irfan Pathan 1 for 32) by 6 wickets.
Man of the Match: Shane Warne
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
Pictures © Getty Images
