IPL CRICKET 2010 - Rajasthan Royals Vs Kings XI Punjab

IPL CRICKET 2010

Rajasthan Royals Vs Kings XI Punjab

RETURN OF THE RAJ

Royals Back In Hunt With 31-Runs Win

Mohali: It's falling into place for Rajasthan Royals. Two-in-two with a win against Kings XI Royals on Wednesday and one can expect Shane Warne's boys to make a recovery in the later stages of the IPL.

        184 wasn't easy target and with Prity Zinta's boys losing wickets at regular intervals, it only became tough for them. Paceman Shaun Tait (3-22) Yusuf Pathan (2-9) and Siiharth Trivedi (2-29) put the brakes on kings XI as they tried to break the shackles. YuvrajSingh (15) was the key in the middle-order for the Kings, and even after he was dropped the left-hander couldn't make the most of it, getting out in the same over of Trivedi. Once Yuvraj was dismissed, it became tough for the Kings and Yusuf Pathan striking a couple of crucial blows, Rajasthan fought their way back.

         Earlier, Warne's boys  rode on brisk cameos by Adam Voges (45 no), Faiz Fazal (45) and Michel Lumb (41) to post 183.

          The Royals were off to a rollicking start and looked steady in the middle overs as well but they did not get the late flourishas the 200-mark eluded them.

            Put into bat on a track which seemed to have something early for the pacers, Rajasthan Royals got off to a flying start in the match billed as the 'Basement battle' involving two teams alnguishing at the bottom of the IPL points table. Lumb was straightway in the thick of things as he smote two fours of Irfan Pathan's first over and his opening partner Naman Ojha (13) meted out the same treatment to comeback man S Sreesanth, who was drafted in at offie Ramesh Powar's expense.

             Boundaries came thick and fast and the score cruised to 35 when Ljha's stay was cut short in the fourth over and the batsman received an animated send-off from bowler Sreesanth. An unperturbed Lumb hit Shalabh Srivastava for back -to-back boundaries and was inching close to his fifty when a smart piece of stumping by Kumar Sangakkara, off Piyush Chawla's only second delivery, cut short the Johannesburg-born Englishman's 30-ball knock that had seven crisp fours in it.