Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid have been involved in a lot of match winning partnerships for India and people were excited to see them compete against each other in the ongoing Indian Premier League. It was a crucial game for both the teams and in the end it was the boys from Rajasthan who came out on top.

Ganguly’s Pune Warriors batted first on a dicey Pune pitch and put up a below par total. Rajasthan lost their in-form batsman Rahane very early in the chase and it was looking as the match will be a close one. But, Rajasthan players displayed some fine batting performance and chased down the target with ease.

Here are some of the hits and flops from both the teams.

Pune Warriors:

Hits:

Anustup Majumdar: He was playing his first match in IPL and he was the best batsmen on display for the Pune Warriors. He was the only batsmen who scored at a good pace and cleared the boundary twice. His 30 runs came of only 20 balls.

Flops:

Opening partnership between Clarke and Ganguly: Both the players are very experienced and Pune would have hoped for a good start from them. But, both the players started very slowly and could only manage 30 runs in the first six overs. Matches are won and lost in the opening overs and Pune lost the match there. Clarke and Ganguly played far too negatively for the likings of the home team and put tremendous pressure on the middle order.

Robin Uthappa: He entered the tournament as one of the biggest hitter but has not able to live up to the expectations so far in the tournament.  He has scored some runs in the tournament but that has come at a very bad strike rate. Uthappa came at number three and only scored 13 runs from the 19 balls that he faced. His innings did not have a single boundary.

Bad finish: Pune had Steven Smith and Angelo Mathews playing in the death overs and they would have hoped for a strong finish, but that didn’t happen as they struggled to time the ball. They scored at a pathetic run rate of around six and that made Rajasthan’s task that much easier.

Rajasthan Royals:

Shaun Tait: He has played two matches and Rajasthan has won both the matches. Tait has always been a dangerous bower and he is a match-winner. Tait has bowled well in the previous match and he bettered his performance in this match. He took three wickets and gave only 13 runs in his four overs.

Shane Watson: He is one of the best all-rounder going around and all his skills were on display in the match against the Pune Warriors. Watson did not take any wickets but bowled measly.  When it was his turn to bat, Watson demolished the Pune bowling attack. He scored 90 runs in just 51 balls and took his side home. His innings included 10 boundaries and four massive sixes.

Rajasthan played a perfect match and there was not even a single week performance. Rahane did fail but he is ought too because of the law of averages.



By Gaurav Jha

Indian Sports News