Cricket

A hurricane called Rajasthan Royals hits Delhi Daredevils

Todays match between Rajasthan Royals and Delhi Daredevils, as expected, was a walkover for Rajasthan – more like a hurricane coming, destroying the Daredevils and moving forward into the finals. The main compositions of this hurricane were Shane Watson, Yusuf Pathan, Munaf Patel and Sohail Tanvir. Delhi lost to the Royals by 105 runs and considering that this was the semi-finals, everyone expected some competition but the Rajasthan team outdid the Delhiites in every department of the game.

Rajasthan Royals bat first and as usual, their opening pair of Graeme Smith and Asnodkar put on quite a show for a 65 run stand in just 6 overs. Their innings included a bundle of fours and sixes. However, both got out at this same score of 65 thanks to Maharoof. Tanvir who came in also did not last long thanks to Maharoof again while Kaif played a short innings of 12. It was Shane Watson’s turn to continue the party that the openers had started and to join him in doing so was Yusuf Pathan. Their contribution yielded 7 fours and 7 sixes. Watson scored 52 of 29 balls while Pathan scored 45 of 21 balls. The Delhi Daredevils fielded desperately but failed miserably as they missed many catches and gave away extra runs on the field. The Rajasthan Royals finished at 192/9 in their 20 overs.

Delhi got of to a very poor start – well they never got started really. Big guns like Gambhir, Sehwag, Dhawan were all lost to Watson in the initial overs for paltry scores. There is no point even mentioning their individual scores, lets just say that Watson took 3 wickets and conceded only 10 runs in 3 overs. Tiwary, Karthik, Maharoof, Mishra, Mahesh and Asif all again fell for paltry scores. Munaf Patel also took 3 wickets and conceded only 17 runs in his 4 overs – it’s a shame he was left out of the Indian squad which will tour Bangladesh. The only decent innings in the Delhi camp was by Dilshan who scored 33 of 22 balls. Delhi were bowled out for just 87 runs in 16.2 overs.

Rajasthan who was responsible for bringing Delhi into the semi-finals by destroying the Mumbai Indians, gave a taste of their medicine to Delhi today and the Daredevils helplessly followed their drill.

Shane Watson was named Man of the Match for his 3 wickets and score of 52.

Rajasthan have reached the finals and will play the winner of semi-final match between Kings XI Punjab and Chennai Supers Kings to be played on 31st May. The finals will take place on 1st June.

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Tags: Asif, asnodkar, Delhi Daredevils, gambhir, graeme smith, IPL, kaif, Karthik, maharoof, Mahesh, Mishra, munaf patel, Rajasthan Royals, s dhawan, sehwag, semi-final, shane warne, shane watson, sohail tanvir, tiwary, yusuf pathan