The prospect of a final face-off between Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne had dominated the build-up to this clash, but on the field it was overshadowed by an imposing performance from Shane Watson. Not only did he deliver a fitting farewell for his captain from competitive cricket, but left Mumbai Indians under serious pressure of keeping their qualification chances alive following a third straight defeat. For someone who had struggled to capitalise on starts this tournament, Watson compensated with a splendid all-round effort, serving a painful reminder to Mumbai of what they should have achieved on a good pitch with each of his crushing blows into the heart of a packed Wankhede crowd.

The Tendulkar-Warne contest should have been a non-event as left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan twice had Tendulkar trapped in front, including one off the first ball, only for the umpire Paul Reiffel to think otherwise. Backed up by his disciplined bowling at one end, Watson dismissed T Suman and Ambati Rayudu in successive overs from the other, depriving the hosts of the attacking start they would have hoped for after choosing to bat. And just as Kieron Pollard had warmed up at the death after muscling a couple of boundaries, Watson cleaned him up to restrict Mumbai to a below-par total, one that was given some respectability by a classy half-century from Rohit Sharma.

It didn’t take long for Watson to set about punishing Mumbai, as he smote Harbhajan Singh for two massive sixes over midwicket in the second over of the chase. He followed that up by drilling Lasith Malinga past mid-off in an over that perhaps produced his only moment of discomfort. Malinga responded venomously, knocking back Watson’s chin with a bouncer – it escaped the grill, there would have been some pain but he didn’t show it. His own response? A memorable counterattack, pulling Malinga each time he dropped short, his next seven balls producing three fours and a flat six and stunned crowd not used to seeing their star-studded home team being overwhelmed in that manner.

A sense of resignation was felt in the crowd, if not among the players, when Watson smacked Harbhajan for three consecutive fours in his comeback over, while Rahul Dravid, happy to play the supporting role, showed his own class with some delightful boundaries off Pollard and Munaf Patel. The pair remained unbeaten, Rajasthan romped home, marking a satisfactory end after their turmoil-filled build-up to the tournament.

Rohit had won praise from Warne as one of the most exciting talents in Indian cricket, and he undoubtedly would have impressed his opposing captain with his performance today. He quickly took the lead in the stand with Tendulkar, his stand-out shot being imposing drive against Warne through extra cover, matched by a delightful punch in the same region off Johan Botha who couldn’t restrain Rohit despite chasing him as he made room.

Rohit used his feet well to spin, stepped up in the late overs after Tendulkar’s duel with Warne was cut short by an upper cut off Amit Singh though Warne wasn’t finishing his spell without a cheer. His final victory with the ball was the stumping of Rohit, stunned by the turn and losing his bat to square leg after a wild swing gone bad. At the end of the game, Warne was still smiling after Mumbai stayed baffled.

Siddhartha Talya is a sub editor at ESPNcricinfo

The short boundaries in Indore proved to be bad masters for Rajasthan Royals. The small playing field seemed to be playing on their minds as batsman after batsman in the middle order perished to reckless strokes. Brad Hodge was at the receiving end of those gifts, ending up with a career-best 4 for 13, but it was perhaps a tight first spell from Sreesanth – three overs for 15 runs and the wickets of Rahul Dravid and Ajinkya Rahane – that set the desperation in. Kochi chased the paltry 98 in style, giving their net run-rate a boost too.

Coming into the game, both the teams had an outside chance of making it to the play-offs, but Rajasthan didn’t seem too optimistic on that front. They knew the remoteness of the outside chance, and took the opportunity to make six changes to their side. Rajasthan now stand knocked out, and Kochi, with 12 points from 13 games, need to win their last game and need Kolkata and Punjab to lose theirs.

None of Rajasthan’s experiments worked. RP Singh and Sreesanth offered no freebies. Faiz Fazal was caught plumb in front by a full toss before Sreesanth got Dravid with a nice outswinger. Rahane followed up a flick from wide outside off to mid-on with a shuffle too far across, making it 26 for 3 in 5.2 overs.

Rajasthan didn’t look to rebuild; they knew they would need a substantial total here. Ashok Menaria began with a six off Sreesanth, Shane Watson with three off debutant left-arm spinner P Prashanth. At 56 for 3 after eight, it seemed like Rajasthan were on their way back, but Watson played all around a full delivery from Prasanth Parameswaran.

Now began the Hodge show. He kept tossing the ball up, the Rajasthan batsmen kept trying to hit the ball into the jungles of Madhya Pradesh. All of Hodge’s four victims thought they could hit him for sixes, neither of them could have been more wrong. Pinal Shah managed to go as far as long-on, Jacob Oram failed to even get a touch, Shane Warne dragged one slog-sweep on, and Menaria found long-off. When Menaria fell, Rajasthan had slumped to 89 for 9 in the 16th over, and they were not going to get many more.

Brendon McCullum came out obsessed with that net run-rate, charging at Shaun Tait first ball. Tait didn’t himself, bowling two no-balls in the first over. One of them – when he cut the side crease – had bowled McCullum. After hitting Tait for a four and six in the first over, McCullum proceeded to treat Oram as a club bowler, nonchalantly flicking him for three straight sixes. When MCullum fell for a 12-ball 29, it was important for Kochi to keep scoring fast. Hodge and Parthiv didn’t disappoint, ending the chase in 7.2 overs.

Source: NDTV Cricket

Chris Gayle scripted yet another victory of Royal Challengers Bangalore with an unbeaten 70-run knock as they spanked Rajasthan Royals by nine wickets to jump to the second spot in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday.

Chasing a modest 147, Bangalore coasted to win with three overs to spare and spoiled Shane Warne’s last game at home as the Australian will retire from the league after this season.

Tillakaratne Dilshan though made his last outing at the IPL-IV memorable as he scored a quick-fire 38 to contribute in his side’s easy win while stand-in skipper Virat Kohli scored an unbeaten 39.

Rajasthan frittered away a good start to settle for a modest 146 for six after being invited to bat with opener Rahul Dravid (37) top-scoring for them.

Bangalore now have 15 points from 11 matches while Rajasthan’s play-off hopes have dipped as they will have to win remaining two matches and hope that some other results go in their favour. They remain at fifth spot despite defeat.

Kohli led Bangalore in the absence of injured Daniel Vettori and the 22-year-old Indian became the youngest captain to lead an IPL side.

It was Bangalore’s sixth win in a row while Rajasthan suffered their third straight defeat.

Gayle was dropped by Warne when he was in 13 but did not give them any chance after that as he smashed 10 boundaries, including four sixes in his 44-ball stay at the crease.

When the Bangalore chase started, all the eyes were on Gayle because of his scorching form but it was Dilshan who stole the thunder initially by hitting a flurry of boundaries.

He did not spare any bowler as he hit Shane Watson in the opening over for two fours and extracted boundaries at will when Johan Botha and Pankaj Singh were operating.

Warne committed a blunder by dropping Gayle off Botha when the Caribbean was on 13, making his own job more tough.

Dilshan on the other end continued to punish the bowlers as he creamed Siddharth Trivedi for two more fours as Bangalore raced to fifty in just five overs.

Gayle, who was playing second fiddle by then, lofted Botha for a six to make his presence felt but Dilshan fell to Warne while attempting a six in the mid-wicket region.

Gayle was not his usual aggressive self but was still scoring at a fast pace, running hard between the wickets along with Kohli and finding a boundary here and there.

But soon the scene changed as the left-hander from the West Indies hit Botha for a six to raise his fifty and then made Warne repent for his dropped catch by launching him for a six over long-off and followed it with a four.

Kohli too was playing confidently from the other end and ended the match with a four and six off Pankaj Singh. His 39 came off 34 balls.

Earlier, Rajasthan were off to a decent start with Dravid and Watson sharing 73 runs but Bangalore dominated the proceedings after left-arm paceman Sreenath Aravind consumed both the openers in the 10th over.

Scoring rate suffered after the double blow as the middle-order failed to carry on the good work and the biggest disappointment was Ross Taylor (13), who yet again failed to make any significant contribution.

Aravind (3/34) was the most successful bowler with three wickets, though he was not successful initially.

At the start, Watson found two boundaries off Aravind and Dravid hit his trademark elegant drives off Zaheer Khan and Charl Langeveldt as Bangalore reached 43 for no loss after six overs after being invited to bat.

Conditions were good batting as the ball was nicely coming on to the bat and both the openers started to play more freely with Watson launching Aravind for a huge six.

The openers were targetting Aravind a lot and in the process both of them fell in the left-arm paceman’s third over, 10th of the innings.

First to go was Watson, whose powerful hit landed straight in the hands of AB de Villers at long-off and two balls later, Dravid hit one back to the bowler.

Two new batsmen — Botha and Rahane — were at the crease and it affected the run-rate. Kohli himself bowled three overs and was pretty successful, conceding just 17 runs.

As if dipping run-rate was not enough Rahane was run out just after hitting Abrar Kazi for a six because of a terrible mix-up with Botha.

Botha reverse-swept Kazi and set out for a single which was not there and Rahane sacrificed his wicket.

Taylor took some time to settle and meanwhile Botha too perished before doing anything significant as Aravind returned to claim his third victim, this time caught behind.

Taylor and Ashok Menaria (8) departed while attempting big shots and eventually, the hosts failed to put up a challenging target.

Source: NDTV Cricket

Chasing 197-run target, Rajasthan Royals lost wickets at regular intervals against Chennai Super Kings in their Indian Premier League match at Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur.

Click here to watch Rajasthan Royals vs Chennai Super Kings from Sawai Mansingh stadium in Jaipur

Dwayne Bravo scalped Ajinkya Rahane (52) in the fifteenth over after the young batsman scored a quick-fire fifty to revive Rajasthan run chase.

Rahane smashed seven boundaries in his 36-ball rapid innings and raced to his fifty in just 33 balls.

Super Kings dismissed Ashok Menaria (2) and Ross Taylor (6) in consecutive overs to halt Rajasthan run chase. Spinner R Ashwin got rid of Menaria in the tenth over after pacer Albie Morkel dismissed Taylor in the previous over.

Royals also lost Shane Watson (11) and Rahul Dravid (20) in quick succession against Super Kings as their run chase started on the wrong foot.

Ashwin struck in his first over to dismiss Watson in the sixth over and reduced Royals to 48/2 in 5.5 overs.

Dravid started Royals innings confidently before Chennai pacer Doug Bollinger dismissed him in the fourth over to give Super Kings a vital breakthrough. Dravid hit two fours in his 16-ball knock.

Sent in to bat, Super Kings batsmen fired in unison to lead Chennai to 196/3 against Rajasthan.

Skipper MS Dhoni (41 not out) and Suresh Raina (43) capitalised on the good work done by the openers as they toyed with Royals bowlers to set mammoth 197-run target for Rajasthan.

Dhoni hit three huge sixes and three boundaries in his unbeaten 19-ball blitzkrieg and added quick 44-run stand for the third wicket after losing the openers.

Raina smashed six boundaries in his 27-ball knock before young Royals pacer Amit Singh clean bowled him in the penultimate over.

Michael Hussey (46) and Murali Vijay (53) gave Super Kings an aggressive start as they added 77-run opening stand inside the first ten overs.

Vijay ran himself out after scoring a quick fifty. Johan Botha’s direct throw in the fifteenth over ended Vijay’s stay at the crease after the Chennai opener was very casual in completing his run.

Vijay smashed a huge six off Siddharth Trivedi to complete his quick 36-ball half-century. The CSK opener smashed two fours and three sixes in his 40-ball knock.

Botha broke the rapid opening partnership between Hussey and Vijay in the tenth over to give Rajasthan crucial breakthrough. Hussey made quick-fire 46 off 30 balls with the help of eight boundaries.

Chennai openers started their innings aggressively as they raced to fifty in just 5.2 overs against Rajasthan.

Earlier, Royals skipper Shane Warne won the toss and decided to field against Super Kings on Monday.

Teams:

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (capt), Johan Botha, Rahul Dravid, Ashok Menaria, Ajinkya Rahane, Abhishek Raut, Amit Singh, Ross Taylor, Siddharth Trivedi, Shane Watson, Dishant Harendra Yagnik (wk).

Chennai Super Kings: Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt/wk), Michael Hussey, Murali Vijay, Suresh Raina, Albie Morkel, Subramaniam Badrinath, Ravichandran Ashwin, Doug Bollinger, Shadab Jakati, Dwayne Bravo, Wriddhiman Saha.

Source: Times of India

Michael Hussey and Suresh Raina shared a 137-run partnership to steer the Chennai Super Kings to an easy win over the Rajasthan Royals on their home ground in Chepauk.

Mid-way through Rajasthan’s innings, Chennai coach Stephen Fleming was asked what total he’d be happy with. Pat came the reply – “148″. It was an unusually specific score and considering the way the Royals were batting at that time, highly unlikely. But his words worked like a prophecy. At the half way mark the Royals were 86 without loss. The Super Kings then came back into the match, picked up wickets, slowed down the run rate and restricted the Rajasthan side. The runs they had to chase to win – 148. Spooky!

The total was never good enough to put pressure on the home side. Rajasthan needed early wickets to remain in the game. Murali Vijay went back in just the second over after making a mess of a attempted sweep shot off Johan Botha. That was to be the only small blip in the otherwise seamless chase.

Suresh Raina joined Michael Hussey at the crease and there was no looking back. They picked runs off all the bowlers easily and the target never seemed beyond reach. Stuart Binny had a very forgettable day; first conceding eight extras through some silly misfielding and overthrows and then Hussey slammed consecutive boundaries off the only over he bowled. When 19 runs came off a Nayan Doshi over with both Hussey and Raina punishing him with sixes, the writing was on the wall. Both batsman matched each other shot for shot and completed their half centuries in the 13th over. Raina top edged a short ball from Siddharth Trivedi to depart with just 3 runs to go, but Hussey sealed the comprehensive win with a boundary off the very next ball. His 79 off 55 balls earned him the Man of the Match award.

Earlier, the Royals got off to a solid start aided a tad bit by Chennai’s fielders. First R Ashwin let by four leg byes with a sloppy slide near the boundary and then Aniruda Srikkant dropped Shane Watson off Morkel when he was on nine. Scrappy – especially considering the standards they’ve set for themselves in the tournament. From there on, Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson took charge. Dravid in particular looked in supreme form, and didn’t even hesitate to play a few lofted shots and reverse sweeps. His favourite shot for the day however was the pull over mid-wicket that he played for boundaries on demand.

Dravid raced to his half century, which came off just 37 deliveries. His knock off 66, studded with ten boundaries seemed to be just the launchpad Rajasthan needed for a big score. It wasn’t to be. An amazing catch off his own bowling from Jakati broke the opening stand and sent back Watson for a well made 32. The wickets kept tumbling thereafter. Menaria, Botha and Rahane all departed cheaply. Ross Taylor tried hard to hit out but was sent back for 20. Albie Morkel, Ashwin and Bollinger were all successful in pulling it back for Chennai towards the death.

Chennai’s fourth win on the trot moved them to 12 points and kept their record of not losing a game at home in IPL 4 intact.

Source: Jharna Kukreja Chauhan, Yahoo! Cricket

It was a tale of contrasting performances from two Pune Warriors spinners. Rahul Sharma threatened to win it for them but Murali Kartik lost the plot and Rajasthan Royals’ Ross Taylor seized the moment, with valuable support from Ajinkya Rahane, to clinch a thrilling win. Rajasthan moved to the top of the table while Pune stayed frozen at rock bottom.

With 52 runs required from six overs, Rahul bowled a gem of a maiden over that included the wicket of the aggressive Ashok Menaria to end his spell with figures of 4-1-13-3. However, Kartik gifted two short balls and a full toss in the next over and Taylor looted 17 runs with the help of two fours and a six. Suddenly, the equation came down to 29 from 18 and despite two relatively disciplined overs from Alphonso Thomas and Jerome Taylor, Rajasthan just needed the odd boundary here and there to squeeze past the line.

Two boundary hits from Rahane and Ross Taylor sealed the contest. When they needed 24 runs from 14 balls, Rahane sliced a slower length ball from Jerome Taylor to the point boundary and when they required 17 from 11, Ross Taylor slugged a length delivery from Thomas deep into the midwicket stands. Game over.

Pune will look back and rue the reprieve they offered Ross Taylor. When Rajasthan needed 32 from 20, Taylor, on 31 then, heaved Thomas to left of deep midwicket where Nathan McCullum did all the hard work to get there but couldn’t hold on. He lunged out to take it but it bounced off his palms as he fell to the ground and bounded off his chest and right thigh.

It was that kind of night for Pune. Only Rahul sparkled with the ball and almost single-handedly pushed them to the cusp of victory. His evening changed with a long hop in his second over, the seventh of the innings. Rahul Dravid, who again failed to convert a start, pulled it back to him and Rahul started to choke the run-flow with a slew of bouncing top spinners. However, Kartik had a horror day, leaking 41 runs from his four overs.

Pune will also look back at their batting effort and wish if they could have done a bit more. The top order flattered to deceive. The contest of the afternoon was between Shane Warne and Robin Uthappa. It had an overload of skill, adrenaline, ego, canniness and a dash of foolhardiness. It lasted eight deliveries but it encapsulated everything that is good about Twenty20. It had an aggressive batsman intent on attack and an ambitious bowler focused on hunting down his prey. Throw in an umpire ready to brave ferocious appeals and rule on the side of conservatism, and you had a thoroughly entertaining package.

Uthappa unfurled the reverse-sweep and conventional sweep to collect two fours. Warne ripped a big leg break next, starting from just about leg stump – part of the ball was outside leg – and it beat the bat to strike the pad. It was the start of Warne’s increasingly vocal tussle with the umpire Shavir Tarapore. He yelped out a huge appeal but Tarapore perhaps thought it pitched just outside leg and turned it down. Warne looped the next delivery on a length but Uthappa stretched forward to slog-sweep it over midwicket.

Three boundaries in four balls and the heat was well and truly on Warne, who responded with a front-of-hand skidder that landed on the line of leg stump and just about straightened to hit the pad. Warne screamed, Tarapore stayed frozen and Uthappa survived. Warne got the final delivery to skid on towards the leg stump, Uthappa was caught in a tangle and yet again, got stuck on the pad. Replays suggested it would have clipped leg stump but you could understand why the umpire didn’t give it.

Warne removed himself from Tarapore’s end and appeared at Simon Taufel’s in the ninth over. Uthappa again reverse-swept the first ball to the boundary but Warne shortened the length off the next and got it to skid and bounce towards middle. Uthappa ended up top-edging the swat to the keeper. Uthappa’s exit was sandwiched between the dismissals of Jesse Ryder, stumped off Johan Botha, and Yuvraj Singh, run out after he backed up too far at the non-striker’s end, and it derailed the innings.

Sriram Veera is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo

Rajasthan Royals were better equipped to surprise championship leaders Mumbai Indians on a difficult track, beating them by seven wickets at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium here Friday to jump to the second position in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

With the win, Rajasthan Royals also snapped Mumbai Indians’ three-match winning streak and now have nine points from eight matches, while the visitors remained at the top of the league despite suffering their second loss from seven matches.

Royals’ skipper Shane Warne was spot on with his decision to bowl first as the spinners did extremely well, on a dry and cracked pitch, to restrict the Mumbai Indians to just 94 for eight, their lowest score in IPL history.

Off-spinner Johan Botha picked up three wickets for six runs while left-arm spinner Ashok Maneria got two for 20, including the prized scalp of Sachin Tendulkar, which was his maiden Twenty20 wicket.

Rajasthan Royals achieved the target by losing three wickets and with 11 balls to spare. Botha starred with the bat again, top scoring with 45 off 39 balls (4×2, 6×1) and was also adjudged the Man of the Match.

While Rajasthan Royals batsmen applied themselves on the slow turning track, Mumbai Indians failed to read the wicket and struggled against the spin.

None of the Mumbai Indians batsmen could get to 20 and failed to get a decent partnership. Andrew Symonds top scored with 17 while opener Davy Jacobs made 15.

Much was expected from Tendulkar, against his old cricketing rival Warne. But it was 20-year-old Maneria, who opened the attack, who ended all hopes of the much-expected duel, with a great delivery that enticed Tendulkar to charge the bowler and wicketkeeper Dishant Yagnik stumped the batting maestro.

Maneria bowled his four overs on the trot and in his last over struck again, taking an easy return catch off to dismiss the in-from Ambati Rayudu (11). The dismissal triggered the collapse of Mumbai Indians and they lost six wickets for just 37 runs.

Despite a slow start, Botha made the chase look easy. He was involved in two crucial partnerships with opener Shane Watson (26) and Ross Taylor (13 not out) that took the Royals home safely.

With Watson, Botha added 39 runs for the second wicket and stitched a 34-run stand with Taylor for the third wicket. Botha was bowled by Munaf Patel in the 18th over and at that stage, the hosts were just five runs away from a win.

Source: Yahoo Cricket

Cosmetic surgery? Moisturiser? Who cares? Shane Warne is still ripping them legbreaks. He is still getting vicious dip and drift. He is still producing key wickets – tonight those of Brad Hodge and the top-scorers Parthiv Patel and Ravindra Jadeja – to keep Rajasthan Royals alive in the tournament. On a pitch where the bounce varied from shoulder to shin-high off similar lengths, Kochi Tuskers Kerala threatened to convert their ordinary start into a decent total, but Warne came back to remove both Parthiv and Jadeja off successive deliveries to end the 48-run fourth-wicket partnership. The resultant target was sub-par even on the slightly two-paced pitch, and Rahul Dravid and Shane Watson ensured there were no hiccups in the chase, with a 71-run opening stand.

Rajasthan were right at home in conditions that their two spinners and predominantly slower-ball bowlers enjoy. They also had the injured Johan Botha back, who removed Mahela Jayawardene with the first ball he bowled. It all started inauspiciously for Kochi, with Brendon McCullum missing out because of a bad shoulder. His replacement, VVS Laxman, ran himself out. Botha came on and turned one across Jayawardene, and with some help from the protruding thigh pad, the ball found a way into the stumps. Warne did Brad Hodge in with one that kept low. As a consequence of those big wickets, once Kochi’s run-rate fell below six in the fifth over, it never crossed that mark.

Rajasthan’s international bowlers – Warne, Botha and Watson – went for 58 in 12 overs between them. Warne even found time to settle a personal score. He welcomed Ravindra Jadeja, who had tried to move away from his franchise last year and was banned in the process, with a bouncer at 110kph. Jadeja and Parthiv, though, kept their heads and put Kochi on their way to what could have been a defendable target. They picked their battles wisely, taking risks against the domestic bowlers, running hard, not looking for ambitious shots.

At 88 for 3 after 15 overs, though, they decided they needed to push for more runs, especially considering it was the expected dew that had made Rajasthan field first on this pitch. Jadeja came down to Warne, who bowled the straighter one and got a thick edge along the ground. Two balls later Jadeja tried the slog sweep, but this one bounced at him, taking the top edge. Back-pedalling, Warne completed the catch around mid-on. Parthiv lost his head next ball, trying the reverse-sweep, and was stumped off a slider.

After that Kochi lost their way with new batsman struggling to time the ball on the slow track. In all, seven wickets fell for 21 runs. The momentum continued into the second innings as Watson smashed the first ball to the cover boundary. Dravid took over from there, playing proper cricketing shots to counter the tricky pitch. He also hit the first six of the match shortly before running himself out, going for an ambitious second run. At 71 for 1, only formalities remained, but Watson pushed the rate up, ensuring the target was achieved with 5.5 overs to spare, giving Rajasthan’s net run-rate a boost.

Sidharth Monga is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo

You don’t dismiss Paul Valthaty off a no-ball, this month. You don’t dismiss Adam Gilchrist off a no-ball, ever. Rajasthan Royals found out just why. Siddharth Trivedi over-stepped as he got Gilchrist to chop on in the first over, and Shaun Tait cut the return crease as he sent down a thunderbolt in the second, that Valthaty guided to third slip. Both free-hits were slammed for fours, setting up a session of uninhibited brutality. Shaun Marsh built on the openers’ heroics as Kings XI Punjab roared to a score of 195, setting up their third win in three games. The Mohali crowd lapped up the entertainment, Shane Warne was reduced to sledging in vain, Liz Hurley had little to cheer by the end, and Preity Zinta could barely contain her glee.

Punjab were on top from start to finish, but the peak of their dominance was the third over of the game, when Valthaty plundered Trivedi for 25 runs. A slow bouncer was pulled out of the ground, a fuller delivery was drilled straight and another length ball was redirected to cow corner. Trivedi managed to squeeze in a dot ball before sending down a badly-disguised slower one that was carved over point. And then Trivedi sent down another no-ball, full and succulent on the pads, and Valthaty tucked in for four more. Things just kept getting worse for Rajasthan, but they had it coming after the no-balls. Even Shane Warne wasn’t at his best, as Gilchrist thumped him for a six and a four off his first three balls. At the end of four overs, Punjab were going at the other-worldly run-rate of 16.75.

Shane Watson, as he has so often done in recent times, came on and produced a crucial wicket, getting Gilchrist to drive to mid-on. Sanity prevailed for a few minutes as Marsh found his bearings, before he showed that there were non-violent ways to score runs as well. While Marsh finessed boundaries along the ground, Valthaty kept throwing visceral punches in all directions. Rajasthan continued to be generous, dropping him twice in the outfield off successive balls. Valthaty used the luck to wrest the orange cap back from Sachin Tendulkar, and slammed a Warne long-hop over the leg side, before someone finally held on to one of his mis-hits.

Marsh had moved to 21 off 14 balls by then, and stepped up a gear to ensure there was no let-up in the momentum. Rajasthan’s medium-pacers fed him with several full and wide deliveries, while the spinners kept dropping short. Warne was the worst offender, and his lengths were shoddy enough to force Marsh to start playing some uncultured shots over the leg side. The 14th over yielded three sixes in four balls, as Punjab set their sights on 200. The projection was revised upwards after the next over, in which Dinesh Karthik looted three successive fours off Trivedi. Tait and Watson managed to pull things back in the last five overs, as Punjab lost 26 for 5, but the damage had already been done.

Chasing the biggest target of IPL 2011, Rajasthan strangely chose to not open with Watson. Rahul Dravid stroked a couple of elegant boundaries before Ryan Harris yorked him. Swapnil Asnodkar came out swinging wildly without connecting with much, and Praveen Kumar nailed him with a full delivery in the third over. Watson tried to ignite the chase with four boundaries off seven balls, but Praveen got him to top-edge a pull in the seventh over. The chase was as good as over when Ross Taylor was caught in front by a Piyush Chawla wrong ‘un.

Nitin Sundar is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

The battle of the Royals in the end turned out to be a damp squib. Royal Challengers Bangalore were slated to take on the Rajasthan Royals at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday, but the city’s weather had other plans as the match was abandoned due to rain without a single ball being bowled.

It began raining in the early evening in Bangalore accompanied by thunder and lightening and some pockets of the city also saw hailstorms. Fans, officials and both the teams hung on in the hope of the skies clearing. At around 9:30 pm IST the drizzle stopped, the super sopper was out and the covers were pulled off. It looked like a truncated game of around 12 overs would be possible and just when the time for the toss was being planned, the rain came back on and with it the covers.

The match was finally called off at 10:55 pm after an agonising wait of over 3 hours with the rain continuously playing hide-and-seek.

As a result of the game being washed out, both RCB and RR were awarded 1 point each. This takes Bangalore one step up to 9th position while Rajasthan moves way up to the second spot in the team standings, though they have played more games than most other teams.

Rajasthan will now face Punjab on Thursday in Mohali while Bangalore will meet Kolkata at the Eden Gardens on Friday.

Source: Yahoo cricket