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Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Charges by  eight wickets at the Sardar Patel Stadium at Ahmedabad on Friday. It was a match where spectators enjoyed the rain of the sixes.

Yusuf Pathan

Deccan Chargers won the toss and chose to bat. There was some confusion as to who had called the coin correctly, but the toss was awarded to Deccan Chargers who chose to bat. Rajasthan Royals contained the flow of runs by some shrewd captaincy under Shane Warne, who not only rotated his bowlers well but he himself sent a wonderful spell bagging 1 wicket for 15 runs. Their best achievement was getting rid of Adam Gilchrist early for 1 run, and that helped uplift the morale of Rajasthan Royals.

Shane Warne captaincy was good and he also bowled superbly tonight at Ahmedabad. He was charismatic as always and bowled his best spell of the tournament, controlled the flow of runs, took one vital wicket and helped Rajasthan Royals restrict Deccan Chargers’  formidable batting line-up to a small total.

 Warne’s players responded to his leadership, with the ball and in the field, and the result was a clinical performance that boosted Rajasthan’s chances of a third consecutive win. They fielded very well also.

Shane Warne got the prize scalp of Herchille Gibbs who was stumped by Ojha off his bowling. Warnes figures read 1 for 15 for 4 overs. Gibbs was out after scoring 25 runs. Other batsmen who contributed for Deccan Chargers were VVS Luxman 10, Symonds 22. Rohit Sharma played a gem of an innings befitting the situation of his team.

Rohit Sharma batted very well and his 49 runs helped Deccan Chargers post a total of 148 runs for the loss of 9 wickets against Rajasthan Royals and gave them a target of 149 to win this match. Deccan Chargers had made one change to the XI that beat Delhi Daredevils, bringing back VVS Laxman for Monish Mishra.

For the Rajasthan Royals, Shaun Tait bowled superbly and bagged 3 wickets for 22 runs and Sumit Nerwa, who was brought in place of Munaf Patel, bagged 2 for 35 runs.

In reply thereto, Rajasthan Royals made mince  meat of the  Deccan Chargers bowling and beat them by 8 wickets. They began their reply with Lumb and Ojha opening the batting and started the run chase with the word go.

They put on 55 runs for the first wicket and then Lumb departed when he was run out by Gilchrist. His departure to the dressing room brought Yusuf Pathan to the crease and the jam-packed stadium at Ahmedabad enjoyed his hard hitting shots and the perpetual rain of sixes. In all he hit eight sixes in his 73 not out and Fazal gave him adequate  support and remained not out for 8 runs. Pathan had reached his 50 off 23 balls only.

Yusuf Pathan also had his fare share of luck as he, while trying to hit another six, fell short of the boundry but fell into no mans land. He ultimately finished the game in style slamming 73 off 34 balls.

The award for the maximum Sixes went to Yusuf Pathan.

The award for Karbonn Kamaal Catch went to Abhishek Jhunjunwala.

The Man of the match award went to Yusuf Pathan.

Ravi Matah

Tags: deccan chargers, IPL-3, Jhunjunwala, Rajasthan Royals, Sardar Patel Stadium Ahmedabad, Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 12:22 am and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.