28th March 2010 - Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad: Rajasthan Royals registered their fourth successive win in the IPL at their home ground in Ahmedabad beating Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by 17 runs. RR once again proved why they are the most loved team in the IPL by playing some very attractive cricket with both bat and ball and entertaining the fans like only they can.
It all started with Shane Warne winning the toss and electing to bat first. Michael Lumb and Naman Ojha got RR off to a flying start scoring 47 in the first four overs. Initially it was Lumb who took charge of the innings and played some attacking shots and set the tone before being dismissed by Albie Morkel for 30 runs (16b, 3X4, 1X6). However the rest of the innings belonged to another Royals batsman Naman Ojha who played a brilliant innings of 80 runs (49b, 6X4, 5X6). Ojha looked equally comfortable against both pace and spin and smashed the CSK bowlers all around the park hitting five massive sixes. He paced his innings very well and never let the RR run-rate go down. All other RR batsman including Yusuf Pathan, Adam Voges and Abhishek Juhnjhunwala came up with small but vital contribution to push the RR score to a very commendable 177 for eight.
RR got off to a dream start with the ball as danger man Matthew Hayden was dismissed early when the score was just 24. Even though Murali Vijay (42) and Suresh Raina put together a good partnership RR got important breakthroughs at the crucial junctures in the game to keep the CSK batsman in check. Shane Warne (4-0-34-1) and Siddharth Trivedi (4-0-18-0) bowled well in the middle stages and put a lid on CSK’s scoring rate. MS Dhoni for a brief while threatened to take the game away from RR but a brilliant throw by Adam Voges from deep mid-wicket found him short of the crease. Even though Albie Morkel’s cameo put some life into the game but Shaun Tait’s (4-0-22-2) extra pace was too much for him as he holed out to Fazal. Needing 22 off the last over CSK could only manage four handing RR a 17 run victory.
With every game RR are getting better, Shane Warne and his boys have already proved that they might not be the strongest team on paper but they are certainly the team to watch out for when they take the field. All RR fans would be hoping that their team can continue this juggernaut till they lift the trophy.
Match details:
Match: RR V CSK
Date: 28th March, 2010
Venue: Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to bat
MoM: Naman Ojha
Breif scores:
RR – 177/8 – N Ojha 80 (49b, 6X4, 5X6), M Lumb 30(16b, 3X4, 2X6) T Thushara 4-0-28-2
CSK – 160/6 – M Vijay 42(28b, 4X4, 2X6) A Morkel 28 (18b, 1X4, 3X6) S Tait 4-0-22-2
Result: RR won by 17 runs.