31st March 2010 – Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi: The four match winning streak of Rajasthan Royals came to an end as Delhi Daredevils (DD) beat them by 67 runs. Chasing a huge score on a slowing pitch RR batsman for once failed to get their team out of trouble.
DD won the toss and elected to bat first. Virender Sehwag got the team off to a flying start but RR fought back well to dismiss both the DD openers in the fourth over with the score on 25. RR then kept the DD batsmen in check and picked up wickets at regular interval. At one stage DD were struggling at 67 for 4 in the ninth over when Dinesh Karthik (69 runs, 38b, 6X4, 4X6) joined Gautam Gambhir (43 runs, 37b, 3X4). RR lost control of the game as the pair put on 79 runs before Gambhir was dismissed. Dinesh Karthik in particular played a delightful innings to help DD reach an imposing score of 188 runs. For RR Shane Warne (4-0-26-1) was the pick of the bowlers as he bowled with a lot of guile and always kept the batsmen guessing.
Chasing a big score RR were looking upto Michael Lumb and Naman Ojha to get them off to a solid start as they have done so often in this tournament. However, it was not RR’s night as Lumb was dismissed in the very first over. Naman Ojha played some sparkling shots to get to 27 (14b, 4X4, 1X6) before edging Amit Mishra to Dinesh Karthik behind the stumps. Yusuf Pathan (24 runs, 14b, 2X4, 2X6) threatened to take the game away from DD for a brief while but could not do so. RR kept losing wickets, and hence were unable to get any kind of momentum into the innings. Their batsmen tried to keep up with the increasing run rate but lost wickets regularly and ended 67 runs short of DD’s score.
RR would like to learn from their mistakes committed in this game and focus on the next game against the Chennai Super Kings. Shane Warne would need to lift his team from this defeat and inspire them to emerge stronger from this defeat as every game from here on in would be vital in determining which teams make it to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Match details:
Match: RR V DD
Date: 31st March, 2010
Venue: Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi
Toss: Delhi Daredevils, who chose to bat
MoM: Dinesh Karthik
Breif scores:
DD – 188/6 – D Karthik 69 (38b, 6X4, 4X6), G Gambhir 43(37b, 3X4,) S Narwal 4-0-36-3
RR – 121 all out – N Ojha 27 (14b, 4X4, 1X6) Y Pathan 24 (14b, 2X4, 2X6) A Mishra 4-0-25-3
Result: DD won by 67 runs.