Rajasthan Royally Demolished By Bangalore

A splendid display by Bangalore in what was a must win match for both the teams. Jaipur which has been a lucky ground for Rajasthan until now has not been so for the last two games. This was their second home defeat but at a very crucial juncture, virtually ending Rajasthan’s hopes of making it through to semis.

Shane Warne won the toss and chose to bat in spite of the dew factor coming into play in the second half of the match. His decision was based on stats which were in Rajasthan’s favor whenever they have crossed 145 mark batting first they have defended the target successfully.

Royals were banking on their openers to give them a solid start which didn’t happen. Both the openers got out cheaply.Lumb got run out for 9 and Ojha went scoring only 7. The next batsman in was Amit Paunikar who didn’t know much about the superb short ball – and Warne mentioned that he reminds him of Aravinda de Silva – the Sri Lankan legend but he was out first ball caught behind.  Watson walked in and tried to steady the ship with Jhunjhunwala but he lost his wicket when things were getting on track for Rajasthan.

It was a pattern observed throughout Rajasthan’s inning. One wicket was quickly followed by another which did not give any momentum to the inning. Yusuf Pathan was expected to do a Pollard for the Royals but he was disappointing too. Steyn who has been the pick of the bowlers for Bangalore was in supreme rhythm once again. It is difficult for the batsmen to handle his pace and the accuracy with which he bowls. He surely got better off Pathan today. Voges(28) and Raut(32) battled their way and helped Rajasthan to reach to 130, giving them a glimpse of hope to win the match.

It started well for Rjasthan with in-form Kallis gone for a duck. For a change theOrange cap will remain with Sachin for a bit longer this time. KP came in at no.3 and from there on took the game away from Rjasthan. He looked in a supreme touch hitting the Rajasthan bowlers all around the park; as always leg side was his favorite area for scoring runs. Pandey departed for 14 and Uthappa walked in and kept the run rate going before he was given out stumped for 26 by the 3rd umpire, which can be said as dubious decision.

KP almost took Bangalore home hammering a fluent 62 before a nasty run out with Kohli which saw a few sparks flying between the two. It looked alright after the match though which ended in the 16th over. This took Bangalore to second place in points table with a net run rate of +0.467. Had they not lost a few wickets towards the end and not slowed down, they would have had a better NRR. You never know when such things will come back and haunt you.

Never the less, Bangalore showed their class today and they have a tough one coming up against Mumbai who are in red hot form at the moment. They will have to play at their very best to win against Mumbai. Now that KP has played so well, as far as the team composition is concerned it will now be a fight for a position between White and Taylor. Although a place for Bangalore now seems certain, they would want to stay at no. 2 position and this win must have certainly boosted their confidence and should once again get them on track for the final phase of season which has now has opened up beautifully. RCB rocks and Will Rock !!!

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