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Rajasthan Royals won their second game in a row after beating Daredevils comfortably by 6 wickets. There were good contributions from everybody for the Royals’ side with Shane Warne leading with the ball picking up 2 wickets and Johan Botha scored an unbeaten 39 to take them home. Daredevils were in trouble at 36 for 4 at one stage but half centuries from David Warner and Venugopal Rao took them to 151. Shaun Tait was critical with the ball picking up wickets of Virender Sehwag and Aaron Finch, and Rahul Dravid showed that class is also very important in the short form of the game scoring 38 off 31 balls.

Delhi Daredevils after being blown away by Lasith Malinga in their first game were playing an in-form Rajasthan Royals outfit at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur. Rajasthan had made a winning start to their campaign when they beat the Deccan Chargers in Hyderabad and looked a formidable side with great local talent. The Royals were forced into making a change with the oft-injured allrounder Jacob Oram replaced by recently retired Aussie speedster Shaun Tait. They also brought in new acquisition Ajinkya Rahane, who played for the Mumbai Indians last season, for Stuart Binny. Delhi too made a change with medium pacer Umesh Yadav making way for spinner Shahbaz Nadeem. Delhi won the toss and Virender Sehwag, the Daredevils captain, decided to bat first, hoping to put up a competitive total on the board.

Shaun Tait was handed the new ball to look for a breakthrough and was generating serious pace straight away. Sehwag slapped the first ball he faced to the boundary but Tait got his revenge next ball when Sehwag edged a rising delivery to Rahul Dravid in the slips. Tait bowled a delivery clocking 157 km/hr later that over to Aaron Finch, which becomes the fastest ball ever bowled in India. Warne took no time to take Tait out of the attack, even though he had removed Sehwag, and brought Johan Botha on. Finch who couldn't open his account for 7 balls, hit a massive six off Botha. Warne was making bowling changes every over and it paid off when Tait, brought back to bowl the 5th over, took the wicket of Finch (11) who was unable to pull a quick delivery. The Daredevils were struggling once again having lost 2 wickets in the powerplay with just 30 runs on board.

Warne took the wicket of Unmukt Chand with his first delivery to leave the Daredevils in trouble at 36 for 3. Warne dented another blow two balls later when former Rajasthan keeper Naman Ojha got out for a duck. David Warner, who had opened the batting with Sehwag, stared in disbelief as the rest of the batsmen fell like nine-pins around him. He was denied much of the early strike and the run rate stayed stagnant under 5.

Venugopal Rao came in at no.6 and played some good attacking strokes and started the process of putting together a partnership with Warner. Rao, a very mediocre performer in a star studded Deccan Chargers line-up for 3 years, finally showed some of that early promise when he hit a mighty six off Botha. Warner decided to turn the screws as well and joined Rao in the counter attack.

The partnership started to look dangerous as Rao cleared the ropes on one more occasion and Warner took toll on Tait smashing 17 in an incredible 16th over that helped take the Daredevils past the 100 run mark. Warner reached his half century, but fell shortly after for 54 off 44 deliveries, a vital knock given the circumstances. Rao took charge of the end game for Delhi, hitting two sixes in as many balls off Siddharth Trivedi, also bringing up his half century in the process. The 29-year old Andhra-ite departed in the same over trying to heave away Trivedi for another maximum, but had done his job scoring an excellent 60 off just 40 balls. Former Indian allrounder Irfan Pathan hit two boundaries off the last two balls of the innings to take the Daredevils beyond 150. Delhi had added an incredible108 runs in the last 10 overs after looking down and out at 43 for 4 after 10.

The Rajasthan bowling figures made contrasting reading. Shane Warne and Amit Singh had 3-35 in the 8 overs between them, while the rest of the bowlers had been taken to the cleaners. The pitch though continued to look great for batting and there was no reason to believe that Rajasthan would struggle to chase down a par score.

The Delhi Daredevils didn’t have the perfect start with Ashok Dinda giving away a free hit, first ball, of which Rahul Dravid made good use by dispatching it to the boundary. There was some early swing on offer and 23-year old Amit Paunikar, Dravid’s opening partner, saw his middle stump uprooted by a fantastic ball from Dinda in the 3^rd over after he had just scored 5. Botha was once again sent in at no 3 after impressive in the last outing. Dravid looked positive and made perfect use of some inconsistent bowling from Irfan Pathan, scoring 14 runs in a single over. Roelef van der Merwe wasn’t spared either as he concede 14 in his first over and the Royals were off to a great start having scored 57 runs in the powerplay.

Dravid survived a tough chance when he was dropped by Chand but edged one in the same over off Van der Merwe after scoring 38 from 31 balls. Ashok Menaria came in at 61/2 and made his intentions clear hitting Nadeem, Van der Merwe and Pathan into the stands in consecutive overs. With Menaria threatening to take the game away from Delhi, Pathan struck back to remove the batsmen for 22 leaving Rajasthan at 92/3 in the 11th over.

There was no sign of Ross Taylor still as Ajinkya Rahane came in to bat next. He too hit a six off Pathan to inflict further damage and the Royals were in complete control of the match, needing just 35 from the last 6 overs with 7 wickets in hand.

The match was slipping away from the Daredevils when Morne Morkel was brought back. Morkel got rid of Rahane, conceding just 3 runs in the over, to give Daredevils a slight chance of sneaking a win. Nadeem, the young left arm spinner, was given the ball in the 17^th over and did his bit, finishing a good spell conceding 25 in his 4 overs. The Royals saw off Morkel, who bowled an excellent spell conceding just 11 runs. But Taylor finished the game in emphatic fashion hitting a four and a six on consecutive balls off Dinda and took Royals home with 9 balls still remaining. Taylor made a quick fire 18 off 10 balls and Botha once again showed that he can be handy with the bat, contributing 39 off 32 balls to remain unbeaten.

The Rajasthan Royals with two wins in a row have gone to the top of the table while the Delhi Daredevils with consecutive defeats are heading in the opposite direction. Rajasthan, well led by Warne, are looking very good and with Watson joining the squad soon will be a force to reckon with in the coming games. The Daredevils have some serious thinking to do. Another loss this early in the competition could well end their hopes of making it to the top four. Their star players, Sehwag and Pathan, needed to prove their worth if Delhi are to make a comeback.

Royals have another home game next, with Knightriders coming to town on Friday for another early start. The Delhi Daredevils meanwhile have 4 days off before they head to Navi Mumbai where they clash with a strong team in the Sahara Pune Warriors on Sunday afternoon.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: AG Paunikar(wk), AS Raut, R Dravid, LRPL Taylor, AM Rahane, J Botha, AL Menaria, SK Warne(c), A Singh, SK Trivedi, SW Tait

Delhi Saredevils: V Sehwag(c), DA Warner, AJ Finch, U Chand, NV Ojha(wk), Y Venugopal Rao, IK Pathan, RE van der Merwe, M Morkel, S Nadeem, AB Dinda

Mini Scorecard:

Delhi Daredevils 151/6 (20 overs, 7.55rpo)
V Rao 60(40) S Warne 2-17
D Warner 54(44) S Tait 2-41

Rajasthan Royals 152/4 in 18.3 overs (8.21 runs per over)
J Botha 39*(32) M Morkel 1-11
R Dravid 38(31) I Pathan  1-32

Rajasthan Royals win by 6 wickets with 9 balls to spare

File Photograph Copyright: Chris Brown

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