By CricketCountry Staff
Rajasthan Royals (RR) would start firm favourites when they take on the struggling Deccan Chargers (DC) in an IPL match.
Published: Apr 17, 2012, 03:52 PM (IST)
Edited: Apr 17, 2012, 03:52 PM (IST)
Rajasthan Royals will look to continue their winning form against Deccan Chargers © AFP
By CricketCountry Staff
Jaipur: Apr 17, 2012
Rajasthan Royals (RR) would start firm favourites when they take on the struggling Deccan Chargers (DC) in an IPL match.
Riding on Ajinkya Rahane’s unbeaten hundred and Owais Shah’s blazing fifty, Rajasthan beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 59 runs in Bangalore last night to recover from back-to-back losses in Kolkata and Mumbai.
The biggest positive to be drawn from last night’s win was the cracking form of Rahane and Shah.
Champions of the inaugural IPL, Rajasthan have also benefitted from the experience of their captain Rahul Dravid, who has filled in the void left by Shane Warne quite commendably so far.
Rahane, the orange cap holder for the moment, has been the pick of the batsmen and has emerged as the only centurion so far in the current edition of the IPL.
The 23-year-old impressed with his shot-selection and temperament last night.
Shah, too, has been outstanding and has delivered when the situation has demanded as far as accelerating the run rate is concerned.
Dravid has also been able to forge good opening partnerships with Rahane so far while the rest of the batting comprising Ashok Menaria and Brad Hodge have been Impressive.
Their bowling line-up, which is devoid of any big names, has also been consistent. Medium pacers like Sidhartha Trivedi, Amit Singh, Kevon Cooper and Pankaj Singh have taken their chances.
On the other hand, Deccan Chargers seems to be a team in disarray as they have lost both their matches and their batsmen like Parthiv Patel, skipper Kumar Sangakkara, Cameron White, Darren Bravo and Shikhar Dhawan have not been able to convert good starts into long innings.
As far as bowling is concerned, South African quickie Dale Styen has been impressive but others like Manpreet Gony, Daniel Christian as well as spinners Amit Mishra have been unable to stem the run flow at crucial junctures.
The slight drizzles in past couple of days has made the weather a little humid but while hosts would looking to carry on their winning streak, the visitors who are languishing at the bottom of the table would be aiming to put their act together. (PTI)
Teams:
RR: Rahul Dravid(c), Ajinkya Rahane, Owais Shah, Brad Hodge, Ashok Menaria, Dishant Yagnik(w), Johan Botha, Brad Hogg, Amit Singh, Siddharth Trivedi, Pankaj Singh
DC: Bharat Chipli, Shikhar Dhawan, Tanmay Mishra, Daniel Christian, Kumar Sangakkara(w/c), Jean-Paul Duminy, Abhishek Jhunjunwala, Ankit Sharma, Amit Mishra, Dale Steyn, Anand Rajan
Catch live scores and ball-by-ball commentary of the RR vs DC IPL 2012 Match here
