20th March 2010 - Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad : Rajasthan Royals roared at Motera, Ahmedabad to silence their critics by inflicting a 34 run defeat on Kolkata Knight Riders. RR put in a clinical performance to register a comprehensive victory against the formidable KKR side. The RR team looked keen, aggressive and played with a lot of purpose indicating that the recent losses have really hurt them. This performance of RR exemplifies that RR are second to none in this tournament.
It all started when Shane Warne won the toss for the first time in this tournament and without any hesitation chose to bat on a surface which looked relatively slow. RR suffered an early blow in form of Michael Lumb. However wicket keeper batsman Naman Ojha along with the debutant Faiz Fazal made sure that RR got of to a brisk start. The young pair put on 42 runs of just 29 balls before Fazal got out after making a valiant 31 (23b 6x4). When everything seemed to be going great for RR, Abhishek Jhunjhunwala and Naman Ojha got involved in a mix up resulting in Ojha’s run-out. In walked Yusuf Pathan and steadied the RR ship along with Jhunjhunwala but was dismissed when he tried to hook Ashok Dinda and was caught by Brad Hodge. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala anchored the RR innings with a well made 45(36b 5x4 0x6) and made sure that RR capitalized on the start good start. The other significant contribution for RR came from the Aussie all rounder Adam Voges who played a delightful innings of 37(22b 2x4 2x6) to push the RR score to very competitive 168.
Shane Warne surprised the KKR batsmen by opening the bowling with Yusuf Pathan who bowled miserly giving away just 5 runs of his first over. Yusuf struck immediately in his second over by rattling the stumps of Manoj Tiwary. RR bowlers stuck to their task and succeeded in maintaining the pressure on KKR batsman by giving nothing away. All the bowlers bowled well and bowled to a plan. The RR bowling was well supported by the superb ground fielding and the catching. This ensured that KKR never really got going and at the end fell short by 34 runs.
RR’s all round performance has definitely lifted the spirits of not only their players but also their fans. RR team would like to keep the momentum going in their next game against the Kings XI Punjab. Shane Warne and his boys have once again proved that they are a team that thrives under pressure. All RR fans would be hoping that this is just the start of something very special and they would want to see many more performances like this in the upcoming matches.
Match details:
Match: RR Vs KKR
Date: 20th March, 2010
Venue: Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to bat
MoM: Abhishek Jhunjhunwala
Breif scores:
RR – 168/7 – Abhishek Jhunjhunwala 45 (36b 5x4), A Voges 37(22b 2x4 2x6) A Dinda 4-0-28-2
KKR – 134/5 - B Hodge 36 (34b, 3X4), S Ganguly 33 (29b, 3X4), Y Pathan 4-0-23-2
Result: RR won by 34 runs.