The Indian Premier League!: Match-18 RR vs KXIP, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

MATCH-18

RR vs KXIP

Venue- SAWAI MANSINGH STADIUM, JAIPUR
Match Officials- A.Dar, C.Shamsuddin, S.Das(Umpires), A.Pycroft(Refree)

Toss- RR won the toss and chose to field first

Result- RR won by 6 wickets and 4 balls to spare!

Man Of The Match- JAMES FAULKNER

Match Report-

Rahul Dravid won the toss in their home and chose to field first. He gave the first over to A.Chandila, off spinner. After his decent over, Kerala's Sreesanth took 2 wickets in the 2nd over of the innings. With both the openers Gilly and Mandeep out for just 8 runs, KXIP were struggling, big time. In 4th over, young Vohra was run out courtesy of Faulkner brilliant stop and throw. On the other end, D.Hussey was settling in nicely. Gurkeerat Singh tried to form some kind of partnership with Hussey, but he was unable to do so, he got out in 9th over. Hussey[41(31)] lost his wicket at wrong time. He got out in 13th over, when KXIP's score was just 75 runs. After Hussey, only Mahmood and Praveen Kumar managed to score more than run-a-ball. KXIP were all out in 19th over for just 124 runs. Falukner took 2 wickets for just 30 runs.

While chasing RR started their innings in blazing fashion. Watson started to hit the ball in each direction. He scored quickfire 32 from 19 balls. From the other end Rahane was playing very carefully. They lost quick wickets. Their 4th wicket was down on just 78 runs in 13th over. After that KXIP bowled some tight overs. Needing 6 runs of last 2 overs, RR managed to score just 1 in the penultimate over, but finished the job after that, hitting Chawla for four on 2nd ball of the last over. James Faulkner was named man of the match for his bowling and brilliant fielding.

My Views-

Once Watson got out, while chasing, RR struggled to score more than run-a-ball. They lost Dravid, Binny and Hodge pretty quickly. That may have created tension in the RR dug-out. But Ajinkya Rahane and debutant Samson kept their cool and crossed the finishing line with 4 balls to spare. KXIP on the other hand have to look for changes in their batting. Gilly is not firing on the top and local players are also not performing to their potential. They will look for change in fortunes in their next game.