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Rajasthan Royals bagged their second win of IPL-5 in style. Gautam Gambhir winning the toss, put Rajasthan into bat. Rajasthan scored a competitive 164-5 in 20 overs. Rajasthan lost their first two wickets through run-outs. Rahane perished to a direct hit from Gambhir from mid-off. Dravid was run-out, courtesy some brilliance in the field by Iqbal Abdulla. Dravid however yet again scored a useful 26. Sreevats Goswami promotede up the order seemed to be striking the ball well, but tried a bit too much and perished to a Bhatia yorker. At 61-3 in the 9th over, the match seemed to be slipping away from RR, but then came together Hodge and Menaria. They stitched together a 64 run partnership in 45 balls and steadied the ship. The duo played intelligent cricket rotating the strike and finding the odd boundary. Owais Shah played a little cameo in the end and ensured RR posted a competitive total. For KKR Lee and Bhatia bowled well picking up 2 wickets and 1 wicket respectively.
With a target of 165 to chase, KKR got off to a disastrous start losing 3 wickets in 3 deliveries. Kallis was deceived by a slow one and caught at mid-off off Amit Singh. Gambhir followed the next delivery edging to the keeper. McCullum was caught plumb by Chavan the first delivery next over. At 8-3, they looked pretty much out of the game. Debabrata Das and Yusuf Pathan tried building a partnership with Tiwary but never really got going. With wickets tumbling at the other end, Tiwary stood firm in the other end, waging a lone battle, that too in vain. He played some beautiful shots scoring a brilliant half-century. Brett Lee tried to restore some hope scoring a quickfire 25 but the damage had already been done. KKR were never really in the chase and ended 21 runs short, bowled out for 142. Cooper yet again was the pick of the bowlers as he bagged 3-28 and the purple cap.
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With teams gaining momentum, KKR soon have to find the right combination. Probably not playing Shakib Al Hasan proved a bit costly. RR on the other hand have transformed from the dark horses into a strong contender.
Man of the Match: The ever so young Brad Hodge for his 49 from 29 which included 3 fours and a six.
Kevon Cooper – yet another TNT!
