The Indian Premier League!: Match-36 RR vs SRH, Sawai Mansingh Stadium, Jaipur

MATCH-36

RR vs SRH

Venue- SAWAI MANSINGH STADIUM, JAIPUR
Match Officials- V. Kulkarni, K.Srinath , M.Erasmus(Umpires), R.Madugalle(Referee)

Toss- SRH won the toss and chose to bat first

Result- RR won by 8 wickets with 13 balls to spare!

Man Of The Match- JAMES FAULKNER

Match Report-

Kumar Sangakkara and Perera were back in side for SRH! That made their side stronger for the game against RR! Sanga won the toss and chose to bat first. But they had the most DREADFUL start ever! Chandila got rid of Akshath Reddy in first over, while Faulkner dismissed Sangakkara and Shikhar Dhawan in 2nd. In 4th and 5th overs, Karan Sharma and Thissara Perera got out. In 7th over Vihari also got out, to leave SRH in all sorts of trouble. 6.1 overs 29/6 read the score card! Darren Sammy and Amit Mishra shared a good partnership! They added 55 runs, before Faulkner striked again getting the wicket of Amit Mishra -21(28) in the 15th over. Sammy, Aashish Reddy, Dale Steyn together added 53 runs in last 5 overs. Sammy- 60(41), Aa Reddy- 14(11) and Steyn 18(10)! Faulkner bowled a brilliant spell 4-0-20-5. SRH put up a good total especially after that dreadful start. 144/9 in 20 overs.

Instead of Watson, Dravid came in to open with Rahane. Steyn got the early wicket that SRH wanted, getting rid of Rahane in 3rd over. In form Shane Watson walked in, and he was looking in good touch from ball 1. He and Dravid shared partnership of 71 runs for the 2nd wicket. Dravid was dismissed in 13th over. Perera got the wicket of Dravid [36(35)]. With 63 required off last 7 overs the match was evenly poised. Sammy gave only 7 runs in the 14th. But Watson proved to be the key. He hit Ishant Sharma for 20 runs in the 15th over of the inning. Watson continued the big shots in next over as well, when they hit Perera for 15. After playing out Steyn's last over (17th of the innings) for just 6 runs, Watto, finished the match with 13 balls to spare, last 3 balls of the chase were, six,four and four by Watson. He needed 6 on the last ball for his century, tried hard but was 2 runs short! Watson 98(53) remained not out to seal the match for RR, by 8 wickets.

My Views-

With the ball, RR destroyed the top order of SRH! Faulkner and Chandila kept it simple, SRH batsmen made mistakes to get out!! But Sammy and Mishra batted sensibly. Sammy being aggressive, Mishra rotated the strike nicely! In the end, final flourish by Aa Reddy and Steyn gave their bowlers something to bowl at!
Dravid knew that, first few overs will be crucial. So to protect Watson, he himself came up the order, and played cautiously. After seeing through the first 2-3 overs it was a batting fest for Watson! He played a one handed winning inning to gave RR their 5th win!