18 May, 2008
Royals roll on

Rajasthan Royals maintained their perfect home record and moved to the brink of a semi-final place with an emphatic 65-run win over Bangalore Royal Challengers in the Indian Premier League on Saturday.

An assured batting display from the home side paved the way for victory as they lost only Swapnil Asnodkar (50) in their total of 1-197.

South Africa captain Graeme Smith proved the mainstay of the innings hitting 75 from 49 balls while Shane Watson added 46 off 28.

And when the recalled Sohail Tanvir took two early wickets to reduce the visitors to five for three match was all but sealed.

Bangalore captain Rahul Dravid provided the only resistence for the visitors hitting 75, including six sixes, from 36 balls as his side could manage just 9-132 from their 20 overs.

Uncertainty surrounded the staging of the match at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium following the bomb blasts in Jaipur on Tuesday.

Rajasthan captain Shane Warne and several other of the team's overseas players had voiced concerns about staying in the city while Bangalore requested the game be moved to the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

However, the fixture got the green light to go ahead as planned after IPL commissioner Lalit Modi assured the 'necessary security arrangements' would be put in place for the game.

Dravid won the toss and put Rajasthan in to bat and Asnodkar immediately signalled his intent smashing Zaheer Khan for six from the final ball of the opening over.

The 24-year-old right-hander shared a 109-run stand with Smith, before he became Anil Kumble's first victim of the tournament, slashing a shot to Misbah-ul-Haq at short third man.

The hosts were aided by 18 wides from the Royal Challengers as Watson and Smith added a further 88 runs from 46 balls to set an imposing target.

The Bangalore reply was immediately in tatters as they lost their top three with just five runs on the board.

Tanvir, brought back into the side for Dimitri Mascarenhas who has returned to Hampshire, claimed the scalps of openers Jagadeesh Arunkumar (duck) and Virat Kohli (three) either side of Munaf Patel dismissing Misbah without scoring.

And after overseas signings Jaques Kallis (20) and Cameron White (10) fell cheaply, Warne dismantled the lower order with three wickets in two overs to claim match figures of 3-23.

Despite wickets falling around him Dravid played a lone hand smashing Irfan Pathan for three sixes in one over, but without support his efforts proved futile.



18 May, 2008
Kings snatch the win

Mahela Jayawardene's six off the final ball earned the Kings XI Punjab a six-run victory over the Delhi Daredevils in a rain-affected Indian Premier League match on Saturday.

The Sri Lankan pulled a long hop high over deep mid-wicket from the last ball to take his side to 3-94 after the Duckworth-Lewis method reduced the target to 89.

Delhi, who won the toss and chose to bat, posted 4-118 from 11 overs with Virender Sehwag smashing an unbeaten 51 off 26 balls.

Punjab in reply made good headway with Yuvraj Singh powering 23 runs off eight balls. Yuvraj hit Glenn McGrath for two consecutive sixes but was then caught on the boundary by Farveez Maharoof with the Australian's next ball in the third over.

James Hopes (four) followed three balls later having been caught by Shoaib Malik on the long-on boundary off the bowling of Amit Mishra but Jayawardene entered the fray and hit Sehwag for 13 from four balls in his first over.

Luke Pomersbach (25 not out) helped maintain the momentum at the other end, launching Maharoof and Bajat Bhatia for maximums in back-to-back overs.

Jayawardene then completed the seventh over with a six, which secured the win before the covers were brought on yet again.

Earlier, Delhi made a flying start, partly thanks to some erratic bowling from Sreesanth, with Sehwag launching a six over the third man boundary in the first over.

They were lucky not to lose Sehwag in the third over, however, when he tried to launch one over Sreesanth's head, but the ball took the edge and ballooned towards mid-off, where Yuvraj spilled a sitter.

Fellow opener Gautam Gambhir was soon racking up the runs with regular boundaries off Sreesanth and Irfan Pathan.

A change of bowler made little difference to the Kings, with Sehwag smashing Vikram Singh for two consecutive sixes and a four in the sixth over.

The Kings finally made the breakthrough in the next over when Gambhir's 28-ball innings was brought to a halt by a peach of a ball from Ramesh Powar which took out middle stump.

The momentum remained with Delhi despite the loss of Gambhir as Sehwag dished out some slogging treatment to spinner Piyush Chawla, but the match was then interrupted by rain.

Shikhar Dhawan added eight after the break before skying a Powar delivery to Chawla at extra cover but Sehwag soon after reached 50 with a single off Vikram Singh.

Punjab took two wickets in the 11th and final over with Tillakaratne Dilshan (eight) and Maharoof (nought) both caught at mid-wicket off Hopes.

The Daredevils were disappointed to have their innings cut short, having raced to 4-118 by just past the halfway stage, which ultimately was not enough to prevent a Punjab victory.