Jaipur: Rajasthan Royals have continued their dominance at their home-ground as the defeated Pune Warriors India by five wickets while chasing the stiff target of 179 runs at Sawai Mansingh Stadium here on Sunday.
Rajasthan had a brilliant start as the opening duo of Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane put up a fantastic partnership of 98 runs. Dravid scored 58 runs off 40 balls whereas Rahane contributed 67 runs off just 48 balls.
But when the match was slipping away at the last moment, it was Stuart Binny who played a sensational knock of 32 runs off just 13 balls to clinch this thriller for Rajasthan Royals.
Earlier in the match, it was some brilliant batting from the trio of Robin Uthappa, Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh that helped Pune warriors India put up this fighting total against Rajasthan Royals.
Rajasthan Royals got off to a brilliant start as Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane started dealing in boundaries from the very first over and didn’t allow any bowler to dominate the proceedings. They kept the run-rate under check and knitted a brilliant partnership of 98 runs in just 12 overs. Dravid got out after scoring 58 off just 40 balls but Rahane kept dealing in boundaries to keep them in the hunt. Shane Watson had a bad day with the bat as he departed after scoring just five runs.
Rahane got out after scoring 67 runs and was followed by Brad Hodge in the dug-out who added just four runs to the total.
But Stuart Binny gave his side an upper hand as he scored 32 runs off just 13 balls and shifted the balance in Rajasthan’s favour. Sanju Samson got dismissed after making 10 runs.
Wayne Parnell did well to dismiss Watson, Hodge and Samson out but couldn’t win the match for his team with his heroic bowling. Rajasthan Royals won the match by five wickets with one ball to spare.
Earlier in the match, Pune Warriors were off to a flying start as Finch and Uthappa added 97 runs for the opening stand. Finch got out after contributing 45 runs off just 32 balls whereas Uthappa got run-out at the score of 54 runs. Yuvraj was dismissed by Siddharth Trivedi for just 15 runs and Pune were reduced to 129/3 in 15.2 overs.
Mitchell Marsh and Angelo Matthews built up a good partnership of 41 runs to take the score to 170. Marsh batted brilliantly and scored 35 runs off just 21 balls whereas Mathews got out after smacking 18 runs off 15 balls that he faced. He was dismissed by James Faulkner. Pune Warriors India reached a total of 178 runs in their 20 overs.
By ISN
