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Rajasthan Royals batted sensibly and pulled off a nervous six-wicket win over the depleted Kings XI Punjab. Kings XI Punjab pacers exploited the wicket as they had the Rajasthan Royals on the ropes at 72/4. It was Rahane who kept his cool and batted right through the innings and secured a win for the Royals.
However, Rajasthan captain Rahul Dravid didn’t fancy batting on this wicket as it wasn’t an easy track. Dravid said that Shane Watson provided the start that was required and it was capitalized by Rahane. “It was a good team effort. I wouldn’t say we had one hero, everyone contributed,” said Rahul Dravid, the Rajasthan captain. “Sreesanth bowled well, Ajit Chandila did well, Faulkner, Cooper, Siddharth Trivedi… The fielding was also good. (Shane) Watson gave us a great start and our batting order did stumble, but (Ajinkya) Rahane and (Sanju) Samson batted really well and stayed till the end to give us the win which was important to us.”
“It wasn’t easy to chase on this wicket. It was a good cricketing wicket,” said Dravid. “Their bowlers got the help they needed and the attack was seam-based and suited to this track. We did make it hard in the end but we won; it wasn’t easy getting runs.”
“You have to realise that in T20, you will have bad games,” Dravid pointed out. “It’s part and parcel of the game. Out of four games, Sreesanth’s had three good games. If 75% of the time in the tournament you have good games, then I’ll take it happily. He did really well today and it was good to see him bounce back from the previous game.”
Rajasthan Royals have a pretty good team, but not good enough for a spot in the top four. But Dravid believes that he has a well-rounded squad. “We built a squad around the fact that we can play in any kind of conditions,” he said. “Fingers crossed, if we don’t get too many injuries, we could do well. We’ve got good spinners. The last two years we lacked depth. There’s still a long way to go in the tournament and we won’t take anything for granted.”
