Jaipur: A powerful batting performance from Rajasthan Royals and some scintillating bowling from Ajit Chandila upfront helped the home team beat Pune Warriors by a massive margin of 45 runs. With the win the Royals have kept their hopes alive for making it to the playoffs.
For Rajasthan it was Shane Watson and Ajinkya Rajane’s batting that took the team to competitive total of 170. Chandila who was playing his second match of the tournament bowled superbly and became the first bowler to claim a hat-trick in IPL-5.
Earlier in the day, Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat first on the pitch that was full of cracks.
Royals’ openers started steadily and got their team to a solid start. Dravid after hitting some cracking fours got out to Ashish Nehra on the individual score of 21 and that brought Watson on the crease.
The massive Australian started the onslaught very early in the innings and upped the run-rate. Both Rahane and Watson looked very comfortable on the pitch and made the Pune bowling look ordinary.
Watson punished the Pune spinners and hit some massive sixes in his innings. Together they put on 94 runs for the third wicket and took Rajasthan to a comfortable position. Nehra once again broke the partnership as he got Watson’s wicket with a beautifully directed Yorker. Watson scored 58 runs before getting out of just 31 deliveries.
Rahane who has been having a dream run in the tournament continued the good work and scored yet another half-century. Some good shots in the end took Rajasthan to a very competitive total.
Pune Warriors had done some changes in their side and they were playing one extra batsmen and would have been confident about the run chase. But, it all went wrong for them right from the first over as Ajit Chandila who has the ability to turn the ball both ways took two early wickets in the first over.
Jesse Ryder who was making the comeback tried to hit him against the spin and gave an easy catch to Watson at mid-on. On the very next ball, Sourav Ganguly lost his balance and the wicket-keeper quickly took of the balls to send him back to the pavilion.
On the first delivery of his second over Chandila deceived Uthappa with a ball that pitched and turned away from him and Goswami once again was too quick for the batsmen and Chandila became the first bowler in IPL-5 to take a hat-trick.
Chandila took his fourth wicket when he took a simple return catch to dismiss Anustap Majumdar.
After the loss of four early wickets Pune batsmen, Ferguson and Smith were involved in a 34 runs partnership but that was never going to be enough for them. They lost both Ferguson and Smith at critical stage and there was no coming back for the team from Pune.
Rajasthan are now on 14 points and have made the battle for the playoffs even more interesting.
By Indian Sports News Network
