14th April 2010 – Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur: They say when it goes wrong it seriously goes wrong and that is precisely what Royals experienced at Jaipur against Royal Challengers of Bangalore (RCB). Shane Warne won the toss and elected to bat first and from then onwards everything went against RR. Michael Lumb who has time and again got RR off to good starts in the tournament was run-out in the third over of the innings. Two balls later Amit Paunikar, playing his first game of the series was caught behind trying to pull the ball. In the very next over Naman Ojha holed out to Manish Pandey off Pankaj Singh. Shane Watson and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala then tried to put together a partnership but just when they seemed to set to accelerate Watson pulled one straight to Kevin Pietersen at Square leg of Jacques Kallis. In the next three overs RR lost both Jhunjhunwala and Yusuf Pathan. However a late order resurrection by Adam Voges (28 runs, 27b, 3X4) and Abhishek Raut (32 runs, 20b, 3X4, 1X6) added a 58-run partnership to propel RR’s score to 130.
Defending 130, RR wanted to get some early wickets to make a match of the score. Kamran Khan provided a glimmer of hope for the home team when he cleaned up Jacques Kallis in the second over. However this glimmer of hope vanished very quickly as Kevin Pietersen (62 runs, 29b, 10X4, 2X6) unleased a counter-attack on RR’s bowlers and took the game away from them. Wet outfield also did not help RR’s cause. RR kept fighting and picked up some important wickets but it was a case of too little too late as RCB romped home with 5 wickets and 26-balls to spare.
RR next take on Kolkata Knight Riders in another must-win encounter at the Eden Gardens. RR has to win that game and has to do it handsomely by a big margin in order to give itself a realistic chance of making it to the semi-finals. RR’s fans would be hoping that their team can win their next game and also the results in other games would help them to somehow make it to the semis.
Match details:
Match: RR V RCB
Date: 14th April, 2010
Venue: Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to bat
MoM: Kevin Pietersen
Breif scores:
RR – 130/6 – A Raut 32* (20b, 3X4, 1X6), A Voges 28* (27b, 3X4) P Singh 4-1-27-2
RCB – 132/5 – K Pietersen 62(29b, 10X4, 2X6) R Uthappa 26 (21b, 2X4, 1X6) S Trivedi 3.4-0-32-2
Result: RCB won by 5 wickets.