Rajasthan Royals continued with their winning run at home as they stunned Delhi Daredevils by nine wickets at Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur. Ajinkya Rahane and Rahul Dravid once again stitched a brilliant partnership of 108 runs to chase down the mediocre total of 155 in just 17.5 overs. Shane Watson played a nice little cameo of 28 runs.
Here we bring before you the hits and flops from the match between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils.
Hits
Ajinkya Rahane: Ajinkya Rahane played yet another scintillating knock as he scored 63 runs from 45 balls. He smashed five fours and one six and added 108 runs with Rahul Dravid for the first wicket. He once again batted till the end which made him the Man-of-the-Match for the second time in a row.
Mahela Jayawardene: Jayawardene started off well as he kept scoring the boundaries. He smashed 34 runs off 31 balls which was decorated with four fours and one six. He tried his best to stabilise the innings but he couldn’t do much as wickets kept falling at the other end.
Rahul Dravid: Dravid once again showed that why form is temporary and 'Class' is permanent as he scored 53 runs off 48 balls. This was his second fifty in last two games which shows that Dravid still has a lot of fire in him which can take Rajasthan to play-offs.
Ben Rohrer: Ben Rohrer set up the match beautifully for Delhi Daredevils as he scored 64 runs off 40 balls. He not only scored it in a quick time but also added 66 runs with Kedar Jadhav which gave DD an outside chance to win this match.
Siddharth Trivedi: Trivedi once again turned out to be a star bowler for Rajasthan Royals as he ended up with the figures of 21/1 in four overs. He kept bowling in right channel and which made his bowling a treat to watch. He picked up the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene, who was looking really dangerous.
Kedar Jadhav: Jadhav played another brilliant cameo as he scored 23 off 21 balls. Though he wasn’t dealing in the boundaries but he kept rotating the strike and that gave Ben Rohrer a chance to play freely.
Stuart Binny: Binny bowled exceedingly well in his two overs and picked up the big wicket of David Warner. He kept bowling on the off-stump line to test the batsmen and ended up with the figures of 3/1 in two overs.
Shane Watson: Watson was once again sensational with the bat as he played a nice little cameo of 28 runs off 14 balls that he faced. But he was bit inconsistent with the ball against DD. He did bag a wicket but went on to give 21 runs in his three overs.
Flops
Virender Sehwag: Sehwag once again disappointed everyone by his below par performance as he got out after scoring 11 runs. He departed after scoring couple of boundaries as James Faulkner clean bowled him.
CM Gautam: Gautam could not do much with the bat as he got dismissed after scoring just two runs. He played a loose shot and Watson got his first wicket of the day.
Shaun Tait: Tait was nowhere near his best from the very first over he bowled. He kept bowling wide and short deliveries which batsmen kept sending to the boundaries. He didn’t execute his yorkers properly and paid the price for that as he gave away 39 runs in three overs.
James Faulkner: Faulkner started off well as he got the wicket of Virender Sehwag but his problems in bowling the death overs still remained. He kept bowling length deliveries which Rohrer kept sailing over the ropes. He ended up with the figures of 1/38 in his four overs.
Morne Morkel: Morkel disappointed once again as he got smashed for 40 runs in his four overs. He wasn’t having any plans whatsoever to stop the opposition batsmen from scoring those boundaries and he paid the price for that.
Ajit Agarkar: Agarkar bowled just two overs and gave away 22 runs. He has been in and out of the team that makes it difficult for him to find rhythm. But without a doubt he has been a under-performer for DD in this edition of IPL.
By Amit Chopra
Indian Sports News Network
