17th April 2010 – Eden Gardens, Kolkata: Rajasthan Royals’ quest to repeat the feat they achieved in IPL-1 came to an end today. RR lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by 8 wickets to end their campaign on a poignant note. RR went into the game with an outside chance of making it to the semi-finals of the tournament. RR made a few changes to their team by bringing in Aaron Finch, Faiz Fazal and Paras Dogra for the game. Shane Warne won the toss again and chose to bat first. Shane Watson (44 runs, 26b, 7X4, 1X6) and Naman Ojha put on 59 runs for the opening wicket before a rush of blood lead to Shane Watson’s dismissal. Watson looked in sublime form as he made batting look very easy and smashed the KKR bowlers all around. After his dismissal it was all downhill for RR as wickets fell at regular intervals. None of the RR batsmen could stay long enough at the wicket to build the innings and guide the team to a competitive score. RR ultimately went on to make just 130 for nine in their stipulated 20 overs.
Defending a score of 130 was always a difficult task but RR got off to a great start as Kamran Khan picked up both Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle in the third over of the innings. However, Sourav Ganguly (75) and C Pujara (45) put on a match winning partnership of 111 runs and took the game away from RR. Shane Warne tried his best by rotating the bowlers around and setting different field but it did not help Royals as a breakthrough eluded them. RR would probably look at this game as an opportunity lost especially since they got off to a brilliant start with both bat and ball.
All in all RR’s campaign this year was a roller coaster ride. There were a lot of ups and down throughout the series. The injuries to their key players like Graeme Smith and Dimitri Mascarenhas did not help the cause. RR gave some memorable moments to their fans which will be cherished for a long time. Yusuf Pathan’s hundred against Mumbai Indians and the 2-run victory against Deccan Chargers will always remain fresh in the minds of cricket fans. The way the team fought back to win four games successively after losing the first three games of the tournament speaks volumes about the character of this team. During the tournament RR also has found some very talented players like Naman Ojha, Faiz Fazal, Siddharth Trivedi and Abhishek Jhunjhunwala. It is a disappointing end to a promising campaign but we all know that in sports you win some and you lose some.
Match details:
Match: RR V KKR
Date: 17th April, 2010
Venue: Eden Gardens, Kolkata
Toss: Rajasthan Royals, who chose to bat
MoM: Jaydev Unadkat
Breif scores:
RR – 132/9 – S Watson 44 (26b, 7X4, 1X6), A Finch 21(21b, 1X6) J Unadkat 4-0-26-3
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.