15th March 2010 - Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad : Rajasthan Royals put up a brave fight but just did not have enough runs to contain a strong Delhi Daredevils batting in their second match of this year’s IPL. RR who narrowly lost to Mumbai Indians in their first game will have a challenging task ahead as they have lost both their games so far. Even though there were some positives to come out of this game, Shane Warne needs to inspire his young team to get their campaign back on track again.
Daredevils won the toss and put the Royals in to bat. RR got off to a positive start in the first over with Swapnil Asnodkar driving Maharoof for a boundary of the first ball of the match. In the same over Graeme Smith got two more boundaries and RR were 14/0 after the first over. However the slide started in the second over when Dirk Nanes removed Asnodkar. Graeme Smith and Naman Ojha put together a stand of 31 runs before Ojha was cleaned up by Amit Mishra for 24(14b, 4X4, 1X6) in the fifth over. Yusuf Pathan, the hero against MI walked in but was out without scoring this time when he failed to pick-up a slower ball from Farveez Maharoof. Soon after Smith was dismissed when he mistimed a pull and found Sehwag, at this point RR was struggling at 50 for 4 in the 8th over. Paras Dogra (29 runs, 26b, 1X4, 2X6) and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala (53 runs, 45b, 5X4, 1X6) consolidated the innings with a partnership of 60 runs. At a time when they looked set to put their foot on the accelerator Dogra was run-out and this was soon followed by another run-out, this time Mascarenhas had to walk back to the pavilion. Jhunjhunwala continued the fight for RR and got some important boundaries at the end of the innings to give some respectability to the RR score. His brilliant display not only got him to a half century but also pushed the score to 141.
Early wickets were what RR needed when they came out to bowl. However the Delhi openers Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir had some other ideas. They got DD off to a flying start scoring 40 runs in the first 3 overs without losing wickets. Dimitri Mascarenhas briefly gave RR some hope when he removed Gautam Gambhir and Tillakaratne Dilshan in consecutive deliveries. However, RR was not able to maintain any kind of pressure as Virendra Sehwag smashed the RR bowlers around. It would have been a different story had Shaun Tait held on to a chance given by Sehwag off Mascarenhas when he was on 41. Sehwag finally went on to make an entertaining 75 off just 34 balls (8X4, 5X6). Shane Warne got the RR fans excited when he sent back AB de Villiers in quick succession, but it was too late and too little as Delhi romped home with 6 wickets in hand.
RR next take on RCB and it is a game that they must win to get their confidence up. The team has shown some spark but has not transformed that into wins. It’s time they get their act together and do what they did in the first year of the IPL.
Match details:
Match: RR V DD
Date: 15th March, 2010
Venue: Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Toss: Delhi Daredevils, who chose to field
MoM: Virendra Sehwag
Breif scores:
RR 141/6 – A Jhunjhunwala 53(45b, 5X4, 1X6), P Dogra 29 (26b, 1X4, 2X6), P Sangwan 4-0-20-1
DD 142/4 - V Sehwag 75 (34b, 8X4, 5X6), D Karthik 23 (26b, 2X4), D Mascarenhas 4-0-31-2
Result: Delhi Daredevils won by 6 wickets