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.

Tags: IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, kolkata knight Riders Vs Rajasthan Royals, Shane Warne, Shilpa Shetty

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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.

Tags: Brendon McCullum, Graeme Smith, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, kolkata knight Riders Vs Rajasthan Royals, Rajasthan Vs Kolkata, Shane Warne

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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)

Tags: Aavishkar Salvi, Ab De Villiers, Delhi Daredevils Vs Rajasthan Royals, Delhi Vs Rajasthan, Dinesh Karthick, Dirk Nannes, Gautam Gambir, IPL 2009 News, IPL Scores, IPL Updates, Shane Warne, Virender Sehwag

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