South Africa skipper Graeme Smith staged a boundary blitz as Rajasthan Royals cruised to a 78-run triumph over Kings XI Punjab in the Indian Premier League on Tuesday.

Smith struck 12 boundaries at balmy Kingsmead as he shared a 135-run first wicket partnership with Naman Ojha that set up the defending champions for a fourth win in eight outings.

The Proteas batsman made 77 off 44 balls before being caught at the boundary by Piyush Chawla and the 68-run innings of wicketkeeper Ojha included five sixes and five fours.

Royals made 211-4 in 20 overs and while Punjab recovered from a disastrous start in reply to reach 133-8, the outcome was obvious longer before the final ball was bowled.

Rajasthan bettered the previous highest total this season by 22 runs and the Smith-Ojha stand was also a 2009 IPL record as the round-robin phase of the Twenty20 tournament reached the halfway mark.

No Punjab bowler suffered more than Sreesanth, who bowled two no balls in the penultimate over and conceded 23 runs, including a six from 33-run Ravindra Jadeja.

Punjab made the worst possible start in pursuit of a 10.60-run-an-over target with Sunny Sohal caught by Rajasthan skipper-cum-coach Shane Warne off the first ball of the innings.

Karan Goel contributed just one run before he headed for the pavilion and when Australian Simon Katich departed in the fifth over, Punjab were 25-3 and staring humiliation in the face.

Skipper Yuvraj Singh established some middle-order stability with a 48-run spell at the crease that included three sixes and three fours, but only Irfan Pathan (19 runs) offered support.

Victory lifted Rajasthan from second last to second on the eight-team standings, behind leaders Chennai Super Kings on net run rate, while Punjab slipped from second to sixth.

Tags: IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Kings XI Punjab Vs Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Vs Rajasthan

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Kings XI Punjab slumped to 53-5 in 10 overs in their massive 212-run chase against the Rajasthan Royals at Kingsmead on Tuesday. Earlier, Graeme Smith and Naman Ojha powered the Royals to IPL season 2 highest score.

Graeme Smith and Naman Ojha ripped apart Kings XI Punjab’s bowling as Rajasthan Royals amassed 211 for four, the highest total of the second Indian Premier League, in Durban on Tuesday.

Put into bat by Punjab, Smith (77) and Ojha (68) struck blazing fifties and combined for a 135-run opening stand, also the biggest partnership of the tournament.

Rajasthan were off to their best start of the event, making 92 runs in their 10 overs before the strategy break. Playing only his second IPL match, Ojha was sent in to open the innings with Smith and the the 25-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman justified the move with his 51-ball knock.

Smith, out of sorts so far in the event, was cautious to start with but soon cut loose to send Punjab bowlers on a leather hunt.

The South African’s innings came off just 44 balls and was studded with 12 boundaries and a six.

He was dismissed in the 15th over while trying to loft a Ramesh Powar delivery over long on, only to be caught by Piyush Chawla.

But before that, Smith and Ojha had laid the foundation for a big total for Rajasthan. Ojha, who was dismissed for a duck in his first match, gave a perfect start to Rajasthan’s innings, hitting Powar for two massive sixes and a four in the very first over.

The right-hander struck five boundaries and an equal number of sixes during his knock before an attempted slog went wrong and Simon Katich caught him at deep midwicket off Piyush Chawla.

Ravindra Jadeja’s 33-run cameo that came off just 12 balls then helped Rajasthan go past the 200-mark. Punjab captain Yuvraj Singh tried seven bowlers in a bid to stop the run flow but none could do the trick for him.

Punjab and the tournament’s most successful bowler Yusuf Abdulla conceded 44 runs without picking up a wicket in the three overs that he bowled.

S Sreesanth, playing his first IPL game after recovering from a back injury, was not as expensive to start with but was taken to task in his fourth and final over, which left him with figures of 0/44.

Powar’s only wicket of Smith proved way too costly as he ended up giving away 33 runs in three overs he bowled. Chawla was the most successful for Punjab with figures of 2/30 in his four overs.

Tags: Graeme Smith, IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Jaipur Rajasthan Royals, Kings XI Punjab Vs Rajasthan Royals, Naman Ojha, Powar, Punjab Vs Rajasthan, Ravindra Jadeja, Sreesanth, Yusuf Abdulla, Yuvraj Singh

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Sreesanth has been included in the Kings XI Punjab squad as Yuvraj Singh elected to bowl first against the Rajasthan Royals in Kingsmead on Monday. The Kerela pacer replaced Vikramjeet Malik in the Punjab line-up.

The Royals have made a couple of changes. Niraj Patel comes in for the struggling Swapnil Asnodkar and Amit Singh replaces Munaf Patel, who’s being rested. Amit Singh is a fast-medium bowler from Gujarat.

Kings XI made a slow start to the IPL but as the tournament progressed they have caught up with the pace. They started with two consecutive losses and the three wins on the trot brought them back in the hunt. Out of seven matches, they have won four and lost three for a healthy win-loss ratio.

Kings XI have one of the most balanced sides in the IPL second season and all-round performances by both bowlers and the batsmen have done the trick for them. Skipper Yuvraj Singh, Mahela Jayawardene, and Simon Katich have come up with good knocks in the tournament and if they get to fire together it will be tough for the inexperienced Rajasthan Royals’ bowling attack.

For Rajasthan Royals, it is the team spirit that has been carrying them through. The depleted Royals have won three of the seven matches they have played in the Twenty20 league. Barring the five-wicket victory over Delhi Daredevils, the wins against Kolkata Knight Riders and Saturday’s three-wicket defeat of Deccan Chargers have been close.

Teams:

Kings XI Punjab: Yuvraj Singh (Capt.), Simon Katich, Sunny Sohal, Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Irfan Pathan, Ramesh Powar, Tanmay Srivastava, S Sreesanth, Piyush Chawla, Yusuf Abdulla.

Rajasthan Royals: Shane Warne (Capt.), Graeme Smith, Ravindra Jadeja, Yusuf Pathan, Niraj Patel, Lee Carseldine, Naman Ojha, Abhishek Raut, Shane Harwood, Siddharth Trivedi, Amit Singh.

Tags: IPL 2, IPL 2009, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Irfan Pathan, Kings XI Punjab Vs Rajasthan Royals, Punjab Vs Rajasthan, Shane Warne, Yusuf Pathan, Yuvraj

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