Rajasthan Royals v Kolkata Knight Riders, IPL 2010, Ahmedabad

All-round Rajasthan seal maiden win

March 20, 2010


Rajasthan Royals 168 for 7 (Jhunjhunwala 45) beat Kolkata Knight Riders 134 for 5 (Hidge 36, Yusuf 2-23) by 34 runs

Finally, Rajasthan clicked as a unit and won a game. It was a slow wicket, perhaps one of the slowest tracks in this IPL, and Rajasthan, whose batsmen were harassed on bouncier pitches in this tournament so far, immediately looked more at home. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala led with a serene 45 to ensure Rajasthan capitalised on a solid start to end up with a very competitive 168, a total which they defended with a disciplined show from their spinners.

Kolkata didn't help their cause by a poor batting effort in the chase. Keeping wickets in hand is a sound ploy of course but they struggled to score runs and allowed the pressure to build up. Brad Hodge was the guiltiest of the lot. It might seem harsh for he scored almost a run-a-ball 36, but he never accelerated and allowed the chase to meander along. Hodge's approach was even stranger, considering Angelo Mathews and Owais Shah were cooling their heels in the dressing room. Even when he was well-settled, he waited for the new batsmen to attack, which was always going to be difficult on this slow track which aided the spinners. And Sourav Ganguly, too, struggled today though unlike Hodge, he tried to go for the big shots but could rarely find his timing. It might have been a plan that Hodge would drop anchor and the others hit around him but he never adapted to the changing demands of the chase.

Rajasthan relied heavily on spin - they started with Yusuf Pathan who took out the opener Manoj Tiwary with a quick skidding delivery and later returned to take out Brad Hodge - and it paid rich dividends on this pitch. It also helped that Shane Warne finally found his mojo today - he found drift and turn to keep the batsmen honest. Hodge was content, nudging Warne around, Pujara couldn't break free against him, and Ganguly couldn't connect with his intended big hits. Only Pujara played with a sense of purpose, hitting four fours right away on arrival at the crease but he too was slowed down by the spinners. And the chase had derailed.

At the toss, Warne had reckoned that 175 would be a good total and his batsmen responded well to the captain's call. They attacked with a plan, with one batsman looking to get after the bowling while the other rotated the strike. While Naman Ojha tried to find his touch, Faiz Fazal attacked at the start; while Jhunjhunwala settled in, Ojha attacked; and when Yusuf was new to the crease, Jhunjhunwala collected a few boundaries. Every time a wicket fell, they counterattacked. We don't know whether all this was planned or it just transpired that way in the middle, but what the approach did was to give Rajasthan a total that they were able to defend on this slow track.

It was Fazal who set the ball rolling with his attacking approach at the top. He walked in after Michael Lumb was trapped in front by Ashok Dinda for a first-ball duck and immediately looked to get after the bowling. In the same over, he swiped for a four but it was in the third over that he really got going with three boundaries against Dinda. He thrashed down the ground, pulled across the line and swung a delivery from outside off to the square-leg boundary to make his agenda very clear.

Fazal fell soon, flat-batting Shane Bond to mid-off but Ojha took over the attacking role to collect a few muscled boundaries against Matthews. However, he was run out in the ninth over, going for the second run but failing to beat an accurate throw from Mathews at long leg. Enter Yusuf and he drove couple of boundaries but yet again fell to the short ball, mistiming his attempted pull shot.

Jhunjhunwala, though, carried on and played a serene knock filled with late cuts, on drives and nudges into gaps, to push Rajasthan on. When he fell in the first ball of the 18th over, it looked like Rajasthan might lose their way but Adam Voges freed his arms to loot 17 runs in the final over, bowled by Ishant , to charge Rajasthan to a respectable total, which proved enough in the end.

Mumbai v Bangalore, IPL 2010, Mumbai

Vinay, Steyn set up comprehensive win

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga

March 20, 2010

Royal Challengers Bangalore 155 for 3 (Kallis 66*, Pandey 40) beat Mumbai Indians 151 for 9 (Vinay 3-25, Steyn 3-26) by seven wickets

R Vinay Kumar removed Sachin Tendulkar, Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu in one over to turn what had been a cat-and-mouse game until then, unmistakably Royal Challengers' way, also taking them to the top of the table. He benefited in part from the pressure created by his team-mates' smart swing bowling, changes of pace, bouncers to Indian batsmen, and aggressive spin bowling by Anil Kumble. It was a fitting reversal of roles for a man used to being among the top wicket-takers in Indian domestic cricket, and then watching others steal the spotlight - not the least when his state-mate Abhimanyu Mithun made his international debut ahead of him after just one season of impressive numbers

There was no role reversal for Jacques Kallis and Manish Pandey, though, who added 50-plus for the first wicket for the third time in a row to scythe through the target without breaking a sweat. Kallis tightened the orange cap around his head, taking his tournament tally to 264 undefeated runs, but Pandey missed a fifty after a good start for the third time in a row.

The Bangalore openers will be the first ones to concede that the night belonged to their bowlers. Praveen Kumar and Dale Steyn laid the foundation by controlling the rampaging batting line-up that had scored 200-plus in both their previous matches. Praveen, with his swing either side in his first over, sent the message that scoring wouldn't be that easy against this attack, and Steyn in his first removed Sanath Jayasuriya with a quick outswinger.

Then Bangalore resorted to the nasty plan that has worked effectively for them so far: bounce the Indian batsmen out. Aditya Tare square-cut a short delivery from Jacques Kallis immediately before lobbing a sharp bouncer. Saurabh Tiwary - two fifties in two innings before this - managed to muscle a few bouncers away, but never looked in control. Anil Kumble then got him with a loopy googly in the man-versus-boy contest. Vinay followed the bouncer theme, and got Rayudu at the start of that definitive over.

While Bangalore had toyed around with other batsmen until then, at the other end Tendulkar was batting in a sphere of his own. He played the flick shot at will, and manipulated the on-side field, but in nine overs he had faced only 21 deliveries. The 22nd that he faced, he tried to flick again, moved too far across and exposed the leg stump. If this was a slightly lucky wicket for Vinay, there was no luck involved in the pin-point offcutter that removed Bravo two balls later. In 10 balls Mumbai had gone from 71 for 2 to 76 for 6, in 11 overs.

R Sathish and Kieron Pollard had to be circumspect for the next few overs, to make sure they lasted the 20 overs. After a five-over wait, Pollard opened up, hitting Praveen for a six and a four in the 17th over, taking Mumbai to 123. In the 18th, though, Steyn hurt them further. If Pollard was a touch unfortunate in hitting a full toss straight to deep point, the sharp bouncer was too good for Sathish. The running, tumbling catch that Rahul Dravid took at midwicket capped a night of near-perfect fielding.

Praveen, though, provided a blemish on a night of near-perfect bowling, giving Zaheer Khan length balls, which he hit for a six and two fours to take 16 off the last over, but 151 was still going to be hard to defend at a ground that hosted 212 v 208 last weekend.

Not with predictable bowling at any rate. Both Bangalore openers started off cautiously in the first overs from Zaheer and Lasith Malinga. Certain that there was nothing on offer that they couldn't handle, both of them attacked their second overs. It all went to an expected rhythm when Bravo and Pollard inside the Powerplay, as opposed to Harbhajan Singh. Their slower balls failed to surprise the batsmen, and their regulation pace was cannon fodder. By the end of Powerplay, Bangalore had reached 55. Pandey was 24, and Kallis, on 29, had already set his sights on another asterisk against his score.

Thereafter it was just a stroll in the park for Bangalore, made breezier by some lusty hitting from Robin Uthappa and Virat Kohli.