Rajasthan Royals had weapons like lethal bowling, athletic fielding and super strategies to defend their Champion’s title, but pathetic batting poured cold water on their aspirations, according to their dejected skipper Shane Warne.

“While defending we gave absolutely everything we had and showed the real fighting power we have. It is disappointing as defending champions for not making it into the semi finals.

“I think our bowling was good as any team probably the best in the IPL. Our field setting and tactics was as good as anyone but unfortunately our batsmen just didn’t fire. We were always under pressure after the first six overs as we lost our top order regularly. At the end of the day that probably costs us,” the legendary leg-spinner said.

The defending champions crashed out of the IPL season 2 after failing to defend a modest 101 against Kolkata Knight Riders on Wednesday.

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Preity Zinta turned out to be the last of the Bollywood stars twinkling in the IPL whose team made an exit from the tournament when they lost to Chennai Super Kings by 24 runs on Wednesday at the Kingsmead. 

Shah Rukh Khan’s team had lost its way long back, Shilpa Shetty’s team lost on Wednesday afternoon and in the evening, it was Zinta’s turn. 

On the other hand, the four semifinalists of the tournament were virtually confirmed with Delhi of course being the first to make it, followed by Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore. 

While Hyderabad and Bangalore are yet to play their 14th and last game in which they take on each other, both teams have a much better run-rate than Kings XI Punjab despite the three tied on 14 points. 

Unless either Bangalore or Hyderabad manage something absolutely atrocious, they would make it to the semifinals. Kings XI can blame the situation now on some wonderful bowling performance by Chennai, a couple of spectacular catches, and their own bad batting performance. 

Chennai had just 116 runs to defend and they made the best use of the resources available to help their cause. The Australian opener Matthew Hayden had been rested keeping the inconsequent match in mind. 

MS Dhoni won the toss, elected to bat first and George Bailey and Parthiv Patel got the team off to a brisk start at 10 runs per over. 

It seemed like they were hardly missing Hayden just when the first blow came and Bailey was run out by Yuvraj Singh. It was a blow Chennai should’ve gotten over but instead kept slipping further and wickets fell at regular intervals. 

It seemed like Punjab were well on course to the semifinals. That was, however, before a huge batting disorder did the latter in. 

A very strong batting line-up was all packed off with 24 runs left on the board. Just like Jaipur, the Kings too snatched defeat from the jaws of what could’ve been an imminent victory.

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Kolkata Knight Riders captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and elected to bowl against Rajasthan Royals in the 53rd match of the second edition of the Indian Premier League at Kingsmead in Durban on Wednesday.

Rajasthan have replaced Graeme Smith with Tyron Henderson.

Rajasthan have stuttered in the tournament and have rarely looked like the defending champions.

Injuries and the absence of some of last year’s key players have affected Rajasthan’ progress this season. They have won six of their 13 matches with an equal number of defeats against their name.

With 13 points, they need victory against Kolkata to brighten their prospects of a semi-final berth, though; Rajasthan would still have to depend on other results.

Kolkata, who have long been out of a semi-final reckoning, would love to play spoilsport and finish their campaign on a high after a disastrous run that saw them lose eight successive matches.

The bowling would once again depend on Shane Warne to pull the strings while Munaf Patel’s performance at the start would also prove crucial.

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Chennai Super Kings and Kings XI Punjab will fight for a semifinal spot in the Indian Premier League on Wednesday in Durban.

Super Kings lost their last match to bottom-placed Kolkata Knight Riders which left them on 15 points and requiring a victory in their last league match to make it to the semis.

If they lose, they will have to depend on the results of other teams to reach the semi-final.

For Kings XI Punjab, who are on 14 points, a loss here will see the end of their title hopes.

Kings XI Punjab will be high on confidence after two back-to-back wins against Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers.

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The Royals Challengers Bangalore recorded a much-needed win over the table toppers Delhi Daredevils to keep their semifinal hope alive. The Royal Challengers beat Delhi Daredevils by 7 wickets in a crucial IPL match at The Wanderers in Johannesburg. With this victory, Royal Challengers now have 14 points from 13 matches. They will make it to the semis, if they win their last match against the Deccan Chargers on May 21.

After electing to bat first, Delhi had a disastrous start with both Sehwag and Manhas failing for a duck. Gautam Gambhir made 27, while AB de Villiers scored 28. Dinesh Karthik was the top scorer with 31. Yogesh Nagar contributed 20. The Delhi Daredevils put up 134/7 in 20 overs. Praveen Kumar took three while skipper Anil Kumble took two wickets in the innings.

Chasing a victory target of 135, Royal Challengers Bangalore lost Robin Uthappa at the beginning. However, Kallis and Dravid prevented further damage and added 70 runs for the second wicket. Dravid made 38. Ross Taylor also contributed 25 off 12 balls to raise the run rate.

Kallis smashed an unbeaten 56-ball 58, as Royal Challengers Bangalore reached 135/3 in 19 overs. For Daredevils, Yogesh Nagar took 2 wickets. Jacques Kallis was declared Man of the Match.

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Chennai Super Kings captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni described his side’s bowling performance as one of the worst in the Indian Premier League while admitting that they were outplayed by their opposition in their seven-wicket defeat to Kolkata Knight Riders.

“It is disappointing to lose the match. We had (enough) runs on the board (to defend) but they (Kolkata) had some brilliant batting and on the other hand one of the worst bowling performance in the IPL,” Dhoni, who was clearly not happy with the effort of his bowlers, said after the match.

“Kolkata batted really well. They outplayed us more than anything else. When you have to chase nearly 190 you need good effort from some of boys. That was what they did,” he added

Chennai play Kings XI Punjab on Wednesday in their last match and Dhoni said he expects his bowlers to do well as they need to win to make sure they make it to the semifinals.

Dhoni, however, would not think that his side would be under severe pressure to win their last match.

“Last year, we were in the same situation, we needed to win our last match to reach the semifinals. So we are in the same situation as last year. It is about how you raise your bar of achievement when needed,” he said.

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A spectacular run-chase by the Kolkata Knight Riders stunned the Chennai Super Kings by seven wickets in a thrilling last-ball finish at the Super Sport Park on Monday. After Suresh Raina and Mahendra Singh Dhoni powered the Super Kings to 188-3, Brendon McCullum came out with all guns blazing, smashing a 48-ball 81. Brad Hodge finished the job for the Knight Riders by plundering an unbeaten 71 that came off just 44 balls. Chennai now have to win their next game against the Kings XI Punjab to be guaranteed a semi-final spot.

Scores:

Chennai Super Kings innings (20 overs maximum)
PA Patel       run out (Shukla)     25
GJ Bailey     run out (Hodge)     30
SK Raina      c Shukla b Dinda     52
MS Dhoni     not out                      40
JA Morkel   not out                       21
Extras     (b 4, lb 3, w 13)     20

Total     (3 wickets; 20 overs)     188

Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-78, 3-152

Bowling: AB Dinda:4-0-29-1-7.25, Anureet Singh:1-0-12-0-12.00, AB Agarkar:4-0-45-0-11.25, M Kartik:3-0-27-0-9.00, BJ Hodge:2-0-12-0-6.00, A Mendis:4-0-38-0-9.50, DJ Hussey:2-0-18-0-9.00

Kolkata Knight Riders innings (target: 189 runs from 20 overs)
BB McCullum     b Jakati                                  81
SC Ganguly         b Muralitharan                      4
BJ Hodge             not out                                    71
DJ Hussey           run out (Murali/Dhoni)     3
WP Saha               not out                                   25
Extras     (lb 4, nb 1)     5

Total     (3 wickets; 20 overs)     189

Fall of wickets:1-34, 2-124, 3-133

Bowling:JA Morkel:3-0-39-0-13.00, S Tyagi:3-0-29-0-9.66, M Muralitharan:4-0-16-1-4.00, SB Jakati:4-0-36-1-9.00, SK Raina:3-0-25-0-8.33, L Balaji:3-0-40-0-13.33

Player of the match: BJ Hodge (Kolkata Knight Riders)

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An forceful 52 by Suresh Raina, and his 75-run third wicket partnership with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (40 not out), helped Chennai Super Kings post a formidable 188 for three against Kolkata Knight Riders in their Indian Premier League match at SuperSport Park, Centurion, on Monday.

Local boy Albie Morkel played a cameo in the death overs, hitting a nine-ball 20.

Going into the match Chennai had witnessed their run of five-successive wins ended by Royal Challengers Bangalore in Durban. But, to their credit, they had responded to that defeat by beating Mumbai in Port Elizabeth, a result that ensured curtain closure for Sachin Tendulkar’s side in this IPL competition.

Kolkata, with 10 defeats in 12 games, are already out of contention and are only playing for pride. The previous game between the two teams in Cape Town was washed out.

M S Dhoni won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bat first on a wicket that was conducive for the same.

And both his openers, Parthiv Patel (25) and George Bailey (30), playing in his first match in place of the injured Matthew Hayden, vindicated the captain’s decision by giving their side a splendid start.

The Kolkata team made four changes. Ashok Dinda, Ajantha Mendis, Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Anureet Singh returned to the eleven while Ishant Sharma, Shoaib Shaikh, Yashpal Singh and Mashrafe Mortaza were axed.

A win against the Knight Riders will guarantee Chennai Super Kings a place in the final four. The Delhi Daredevils have already qualified after their victory in Bloemfontein against the Rajasthan Royals on Sunday.

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Scoreboard of the 50th match between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals at Bloemfontein on Sunday.

Delhi Daredevils innings (20 overs maximum)
G Gambhir         c & b Patel      8
V Sehwag           lbw b Patel     2
AB de Villiers   not out         79
TM Dilshan        b Botha        33
D Karthik            not out        23
Extras     (lb 1, w 1, nb 3)     5

Total     (3 wickets; 20 overs)     150

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-15, 3-102

Bowling              O     M     R     W     Econ
MM Patel          4     0     39     2     9.75
A Singh              3    0     23     0      7.66
SK Trivedi        1     0     9     0        9.00
J Botha              4    0     23     1       5.75
SK Warne         4     0     28     0      7.00
RA Jadeja        2     0     13     0      6.50
AS Raut             1     0     10     0      10.00
YK Pathan       1      0       4       0     4.00

Rajasthan Royals innings
RJ Quiney        c Nannes b Nehra     6
GC Smith          c Salvi b Nannes     0
N Ojha               c Sehwag b Salvi     9
J Botha             c Sehwag b Maharoof     37
R Jadeja          c Karthik b Salvi     24
Y Pathan        c Karthik b Maharoof     1
AS Raut           b Mishra         11
SK Warne       st Karthik b Mishra     6
A Singh           st Karthik b Mishra     0
SK Trivedi     not out         6
MM Patel       not out         23
Extras     (lb 6, w 5, nb 2)     13

Total     (9 wickets; 20 overs)     136

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-8, 3-24, 4-79, 5-82, 6-98, 7-99, 8-99, 9-107

Bowling                 O     M     R     W     Econ
A Nehra                3     0       8      1      2.66
DP Nannes           4     0     33      1     8.25
AM Salvi              4     0      19      2     4.75
MF Maharoof     4     0      27     2     6.75
A Mishra              4     0      33     3     8.25
TM Dilshan          1     0      10     0     10.00

Delhi Daredevils won the toss and chose to bat first.

Man of the match: AB de Villiers (Delhi Daredevils)

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Kings XI Punjab lived to see another day in the IPL after a tremendous bowling effort – highlighted by Yuvraj Singh’s second hat-trick of the tournament – gave them a one-run win over the Deccan Chargers off the last ball of the game.

Chargers needed 11 runs in the last over but Pathan assured his homeside by dismissing Rohit Sharma (42) and RP Singh (0) for the much-needed victory.

Rohit Sharma was the last hope for Deccan Chargers after they lost three quick wickets to Yuvraj but Sharma failed to repeat the last night’s magic.

Kings XI Punjab skipper Yuvraj Singh took his second hat-trick, as Deccan Chargers lost quick wickets after the strategy break.

Yuvraj dismissed Herschelle Gibbs (26), Andrew Symonds (25) and Venugopal Rao (0), spread over two overs, to bring back Punjab in hunt.

Adam Gilchrist (23) gave Chargers a flourishing start until Ramesh Powar struck twice in the fifth over. Powar removed Gilchrist and T Suman (0) in consecutive deliveries.

Earlier, Kumar Sangakkara helped depleted Kings XI Punjab to 134/7 in 20 overs.

Sangakkara (56) and Wilkin Mota (12) stitched a valuable partnership of 53 runs for the fifth wicket to revive Punjab’s hopes after a poor start.

Sent to bat first, Kings XI Punjab lost wickets at regular intervals against roaring Chargers. Kings XI were desperately missing Jayawardene, as no batsmen found their feet on the ground in crunch time.

Chargers got rid of Yuvraj Singh (20) before the strategy break, as Kings XI got off to a worst possible start in the must-win game at New Wanderers Stadium.

Venugopal Rao shattered Yuvraj’s middle stump in the 9th over to pile misery on already struggling Kings XI who lost their three top order batsmen within five overs.

RP Singh dismissed opener Sunny Sohal (9) in the second over to become the highest wicket-taker in the tournament. Sohal tried all possible ways to get out and was finally successful when miscued one to Rohit Sharma at short fine-leg.

Luke Pomersbach also did not last long and was run-out by Herschelle Gibbs for 1 run.

Simon Katich played couple of good shots before being claimed by Andrew Symonds for 11 runs. Pragyan Ojha took a comfortable catch at the mid-on.

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