Rajasthan Royals Vs Banglore Royal Challengers - Match Bulletin

Rajasthan Royals Vs Royal Banglore Challengers - Match 2 - Newlands, Cape Town

This was a match between the defending champions Rajasthan Royals and the underdogs Royal Banglore Challengers. Royal Challengers decision to bat first terribly backfired when Mascarenhas got the wickets of Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor off successive balls in the first over. In came the Royal Challengers captain Kevin Pieterson, who incidentally is one of the highest paid IPL star, with a huge responsibility on his shoulder. Uthappa's disappointing run continued as he got out scoring just 3 off 10 balls, the wicket taker again was Mascarenhas. The fall of Uthappas wicket bought in Rahul Dravid to the crease. Dravid was blamed for the dismal performance of Royal Challengers last year and he came in with a purpose and a point to prove his critics. A decent partnership between Dravid and Pieterson was forged, and when things looked going Royal Challengers way Henderson striked with Pieterson's wicket. Virat Kohli and B Akhil fell to the magic of Shane Warne's spin. Rahul Dravid stood like a rock at the other end in spite of wickets falling frequently. he crafted a perfect innings of 66 from 48 balls studded with eight fours and a huge six over deep mid-wicket boundary off Munaf Patel. Dravid fell to Munaf, thanks to a brilliant catch from skipper Shane Warne. Vinay Kumar's innovate play fetched him two boundaries of the last two balls and Royal Challengers finished with a moderate total of 133.

Needing 134 to win Rajasthan Royals looked favorites to win the match quite easily. Cricket it is said is a game of glorious uncertainties and the defending champions were humbled by the underdogs.

The fall started in the first over with Asnodkar skying one of Praveen kumar to be held safely by Kohli. Smith was dismissed in Kumar's second over and Rajasthan Royals were left struggling at 7 for 2. The procession of batsmen continued as Ryder removed NK Patel and Henderson. Mascarenhas was run out, thanks to his stupidity. Kumble was introduced to the attack and he proved as to why he was rated as one of the best. Kumble did what he was best at.... "Running right through the batting line up". Who said T 20 is a batsman's game? Kumble's figures of 5 for 5 with an economy rate of miserly 1.57 shows that the bowlers in this format have learnt not only to stem the flow of runs but also take wickets in the process. There is nothing much to talk about Rajasthan Royal's performance as they were bundled out for 58, the lowest ever score in the history of IPL. It must have been a tough choice for the man of the match award. But Dravid won the award, thanks to some excellent batting display. At the end of the day the Champions were made the lick the ground by the Underdogs.

Toss:
Royal Banglore Challengers won the toss and chose to bat

Teams:
Rajasthan Royals
G Smith, S Asnodkar, N Patel, T Henderson, Y Pathan, D Mascarenhas, R Jadeja, S Warne, M Rawat, M Patel, Kamran Khan
Banglore Royal Challengers
J Ryder, R Uthappa, K Pieterson, R Taylor, R Dravid, V Kohli, B Akhil, P Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Dale Steyn, A Kumble

Brief Scores:
Banglore Royal Challengers - 133/8 in 20 overs (R Dravid - 66, K Pieterson - 32, D Mascarenhas - 3/20, S Warne - 2/18)
Rajasthan Royals - 58 all out in 15.1 overs (T Henderson - 11, Y Pathan - 11, R Jadeja - 11, A Kumble - 5/5, P Kumar - 2/7)

Result:
Royal Challengers won by 75 runs.