The Indian Premier League!: Match-23 RR vs MI, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

MATCH-23

RR vs MI

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 bat first

Result- RR won by 87 runs!

Man Of The Match- AJINKYA RAHANE

Match Report-

Rahul Dravid won the toss and surprisingly choose to bat first on a wicket with nice covering of grass. Last match which RR won, they had chosen to field first. So that was a surprising decision for many experts. Watson and Rahane gave a good start. MI's bowlers Johnson, Malinga, Dhawan couldn't do much! Watson attacked all of them very well. They scored 58 runs without loosing a wicket. Finally Pollard broke the partnership by dismissing Watson in 8th over. Watson scored 31(25) and had partnership og 72 with Rahane. Another surprise was there from Dravid, he sent in young wicket keeper batsman Yagnik instead of himself. And it was one of the master-strokes by Dravid! He hit all around the ground and scored quick fire 34(24). Stuart Binny sadly got run-out due to the mix-up between Rahane and him. Brad Hodge came in after 2nd wicket in the 16th over. Hodge and Rahane scored 47 in last 4 overs. 19 came from the 1 over(last over of the innings by Johnson) itself. Rahane remained not out scoring 68(54) while Hodge scored 27(15)! RR scored 179 runs in their 20 overs.

MI batting was in top form before this match. Even if the opening pair failed, Karthik, Pollard, Rohit Sharma scored runs consistently. Off spinner, Ajit Chandila started the proceedings. He got the wicket of Tendulkar on 4th ball of the innings. Ankeet Chavan left arm spinner bowled a good line from the other end. In 3rd over Ponting was caught and bowled by Chandila. MI were in deep trouble. But with Kartik and Rohit Sharma on strike they always had a chance. But RR bowlers gave nothing away. They bowled tight line and didn't give chance to Karthik and R.Sharma to score freely. They managed just 26 runs in the powerplay. Rohit Sharma, looking to break the shackles, got out at the start of 7th over. Pollard lost his middle stump on bowling of S.Binny, in 8th over. Rayudu and Karthik played very cautiosly, but were unable to find boundaries on consistent basis. Karthik got out in 13th over. MI required 118 of 7 overs. They kept loosing wickets after that. And were all out in 19th over under 100. RR bowled them out for just 92 runs to register a big win of 87 runs.

My Views-

RR played brilliant all round cricket. Dravid's instinctive decisions worked very nicely. And Ajinkya Rahane played a fabulous innings. He hit all pure cricketing shots without any risk. Young keeper Yagnik played fearsome cricket.

MI's opening pair problem continuous for them! And hope that they have realized that every time Pollard, Karthik, Sharma can't play match-winnings innings. There has to be someone who can play around with these guys. One of Ponting and Tendulkar need to bat as many overs as possible and tell the younger guys to have a go from other end. This loss will awake them from their daydreaming. They have lost both the matches while chasing. And won the 3 when they have been batting first.