Rajasthan Royals record third consecutive win by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Scorecard:	Rajasthan Royals v Deccan Chargers
Player:	MJ Lumb, YK Pathan, RG Sharma, SW Tait, RG Sharma, YK Pathan, MJ Lumb
Event:	Indian Premier League 2009/10

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DateLine: 26th March 2010

 

It was a perfect match for Rajasthan Royals under lights at the Motera on Friday night. First, the bowlers set up the win by restricting Deccan Chargers to a below par score and then Yusuf Pathan illuminated the night with his power hitting. Royals won by eight wickets to record their third consecutive win in the DLF IPL 3.

 

Deccan's powerful batting line-up failed to click as a unit and except for Rohit Sharma (49) none of the batsman could play a big innings. Warne had a dream night as captain. He surprised his counterpart Adam Gilchrist by holding back his fastest bowler Shaun Tait and instead gave the new ball to Sumit Narwal. The bowler induced a false stroke from Adam Gilchrist and Deccan was in trouble from the first over. Rajasthan kept getting the breakthroughs at regular intervals. Gibbs (25) and Andrew Symonds (22) couldn’t cash on to their good starts. Jhunjhunwala was electric on field and ran out Symonds when the batsman threatened to take the match away. Jhunjhunwala also ran out Venugopal Rao as Deccan plunged to 103 for six in the 14th over. Rohit Sharma ploughed a lonely furrow but found little support from the other end. The total of 149 for nine wasn't enough and Deccan needed wickets early to put pressure on Royals.

 

Chasing a modest total, South African Lumb took the attack to the Deccan bowlers. Vaas couldn’t repeat his magic as Lumb took two boundaries in his opening over and in RP Singh’s second over the South African struck four boundaries. Rajasthan galloped to 39 for no loss in just four overs and the fate of the match was more or less settled. Ojha’s dismissal brought more trouble to Chargers in the form of Yusuf Pathan.

 

The batsman played like man possessed and flayed the bowling. Yusuf dispatched his second ball he received from Ojha over long off for a six to signal his intentions. Perhaps Gilchrist missed a trick by persisting with spinners as they were cannon fodder for Pathan. By the time Vaas came back for his second spell, Pathan was in a murderous mood and contemptuously struck Vaas for two sixes. Pathan completed his fifty in 23 balls and struck Sharma for two sixes to complete the win which came in the 16th over.