IPL: Shaun, Shane give Rajasthan a seven wicket win

Pune: First Shaun Tait bowled a brilliant spell of 3 for 13 to restrict Pune Warriors for paltry 125 and later Shane Watson played a superb innings of 90 runs off 50 balls to give Rajasthan Royals a seven-wicket at Subroto Roy Sahara Cricket Stadium here on Tuesday.

The loss was Pune's eighth in 12 matches which nearly ended Warriors chances of making it to the play offs and the win have put Rajasthan Royals in the reckoning for the last four place as the convincing win have got them upto fourth place with a healthy net run rate of +0.265.

Pune Warriors, who began their IPL-5 campaign on a high, catapulted to another defeat as their batsmen were a complete let down once again. Batting first, Pune Warriors could manage only 125 for six in their stipulated 20 overs. Except for Anustup Majumdar, who was making a debut in IPL-5, who scored a quickfire 30, all the other batsmen found it difficult to score against the Rajasthan bowlers. Ganguly once again failed with his willow scoring just 14 off 18 balls while the man-in-form Steve Smith too struggled, managing only 18 off 22 balls.

Chasing a modest target, Rajasthan too didn’t get off to a good start as they lost in-form Ajinkya Rahane for a duck while Rahul Dravid too depart without making an impression. But Shane Watson was in his element best as he sent the Pune bowlers on a leatherhunt. Watson added 56 runs for the third wicket with Ashok Maneria. Royals won with 22 balls to spare.