Shane Keith Warne produced his magic touch yet again as Rajasthan Royals beat Deccan Chargers by two runs in a match that was gifted on a plate by the Hyderabad men to Rajasthan.With 5 wins and 5 losses Rajasthan have moved to fourth in the points table and they stand a realistic chance of making the Semis of IPL 2010.

Rajasthan Royals batted first and made a below par 159 with another Shane,Watson being the lone man scoring 58 off 36 balls.Deccan should have finished the match easily with Gilchrist showing his aggressive instincts with a quickfire 34.It was the newcomer Dole who accounted for both the openers and Deccan kept losing wickets at regular intervals succumbing to bad shots.

Deccan was still cruising when in came Warne who picked up 4 wickets for 21 runs in his 4 overs and exposed the inexperienced lower order of the Deccan Chargers.In the end Rohit Sharma’s 73 went in vain as the Royals once again came back from behind to put it past the Deccan Chargers.

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Delhi Daredevils beat Rajasthan Royals by 6 wickets and with 17 balls remaining in the 6th match of the IPL season 3 at Ahmedabad.

First Daredevils limited Royals to 141/6 in 20 overs. Top order failed to stand and score while Jhunjhunwala (53 runs, 4*5, 6*1) showed an outstanding performance for the losing Royals.

Though Captain Gambhir couldn’t give a good start, Delhi opner Sehwag made his place in the history of 3rd IPL by scoring the fastest 50 from just 21 balls. Sehwag made 75 runs with 8 fours and 5 sixes.

Dinesh Karthik and AB de Villiers looked to finish off while de Villiers was caught by Fazal and hence was completed by Manhas.

Virender Sehwag was declared Man of the Match.

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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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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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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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Defending champions Rajasthan Royals would be hoping to take a step closer to a semi-final spot when they meet table toppers Delhi Daredevils in the second edition of the Indian Premier League on Sunday.

Delhi with 8 wins from 11 matches have consolidated their lead in the points table with 16 points and their entry in the semi-final is almost assured. Rajasthan are placed third with 13 points from 12 matches.

A win will give Rajasthan Royals a safe lead among the contenders for the last four stage. The team is fresh from their thrilling two run win over Mumbai Indians in their last match and needless to say will enter the Sunday’s clash high on confidence.

The Jaipur team under the Captain Shane Warne has played like a close-knit unit. Warne defied medical advice to play with a pulled hamstring against Mumbai Indians and admitted his old rivalry with Mumbai Captain Sachin Tendulkar tempted him to participate. The Australian won the contest on Thursday, picking Tendulkar in his impressive two-wicket haul but it is to be seen whether he will make himself available for the rest of the matches.

Rajasthan still need to be more consistent in their batting to make up for not so strong bowling attack. To win, Graeme Smith, Swapnil Asnodkar, Yusuf Pathan, and Naman Ojha all need to score with Delhi having much more depth in their batting line-up, starting with captain Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Tillakratne Dilshan and AB de Villiers.

Delhi’s bowling attack is equally potent and though the side lost to Kings XI Punjab in their last match, the fact that they succeeded in bringing the match to the wire while defending a low total only show its effectiveness.

There is also no dearth of options for Delhi, with bowlers like Glenn McGrath still waiting for their turn. Ferveez Mahroof played his first match against Kings XI Punjab.

For Rajasthan, Siddharth Trivedi and Johan Botha produced quality spells and with Warne and Pathan at the other end added variety to the attack.

However, what gives Rajasthan a slight edge is that they had won the solitary encounter with Delhi in this edition by five wickets.

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Shane Warne was almost ruled out of rest of the IPL owing to his hamstring injury but still he made a surprise appearance against Mumbai Indians as he did not want to miss possibly his only chance to play Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian Premier League.

The previous match between the two teams was washed out by rains so with Tendulkar again on the opposite side yesterday there “no way to stop” Warne, who had his leg strapped up, says Rajasthan Royals Director of Coaching Darren Barry.

“We, Jermy, the physio, and I gave Shane every warning against playing today. You would have needed a semi trial to stop Shane from playing against the Mumbai Indians.With Sachin Tendulkar in their team, there was no way to stop him,” Barry said.

“His leg was strapped up but he said he was playing. And when he says he is playing, it doesn’t matter what we are saying,” he was quoted as saying by the official IPL Website.

Acknowledging man-of-the-match Warne’s role in the win, Barry also showered lavish praise on all his boys for their collective effort to pull off the win in the nerve-wrecking encounter.

On playing so many close matches, Barry said “Rajasthan Royals have played quite a few of those in the last couple of years. Last year we had two on the last ball and one on the penultimate ball against Deccan Chargers.

Barry also lauded the efforts of Munaf Patel and Rob Quiney in Jaipur winning the crucial match.

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With their inspirational skipper Shane Warne ruled out owing to a hamstring injury, Rajasthan Royals will be a lesser force when they take on in-form Mumbai Indians in a crucial Indian Premier League match on Thursday.

Warne’s hamstring injury means his much-anticipated face-off with Mumbai skipper Sachin Tendulkar, which was prevented by rain the last time, will not happen yet again.

Both the teams are tied on 11 points after 11 games but Mumbai is ahead on net run rate at the fourth spot and Thursday’s match might prove to be crucial in deciding the semifinal spots.

Rajasthan’s current form is not too encouraging and after the team lost to Chennai Super Kings and Deccan Chargers in its last two matches, Warne’s imposing presence would surely be missed by the defending champions.

Mumbai, on the other hand, seems to have recovered from a hat-trick losses and have registered two back-to-back wins over Royal Challengers Bangalore and Kings XI Punjab to put their campaign back on track.

The team’s batting looks solid with Tendulkar in sublime form and JP Duminy emerging as the middle order mainstay. Among others, Dwayne Bravo has also been among the runs while Ajinkya Rahane is in sparkling form.

Sanath Jayasuriya’s form, however, remains a concern and Tendulkar would expect the Sri Lankan to wriggle out of the bad patch on Thursday and play his natural, swashbuckling cricket.

Mumbai bowlers are not doing too badly and injured pace spearhead Zaheer Khan’s absence has not been felt much.

Lasith Malinga and Harbhajan Singh have combined to lead the attack well, although the fiery off-spinner has complained that he is not aware of his role in the team.

In comparison, Rajasthan’s batting is too dependent on Graeme Smith and Yusuf Pathan although Naman Ojha, who was initially sent back, has turned out to be quite a surprise package.

However, the unavailability of pacers Kamran Khan and Amit Singh, both of whom were found guilty of having a suspect action, has taken the bite out of Rajasthan’s bowling attack.

And with Warne, known to surprise the opposition with unconventional and often successful bowling changes, missing from action, it would be interesting to see how Rajasthan react to tight situations in the match.

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Yet another interesting clash between a consistent batting side and a strategically proficient team is on the cards as table toppers Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals face off in the Indian Premier League (IPL) here Saturday.

There is not much to choose between the two teams as far as their performance in the last couple of matches are concerned. However, the Super Kings seemed to be much more consistent in batting and bowling, but sloppy in fielding. They will be aiming to notch up their fifth win on the trot while the Royals would be plotting revenge after losing to the Chennai side by 38 runs in Pretoria on April 30.

The two teams have same number of points (11), have won five matches each, lost three each and there was no result in one of both team’s matches, but the Super Kings are ahead on net run rate. This shows that the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led side has done better in batting. In fact, the Super Kings have crossed 150 in all their matches.

The Royals were also dealt a blow by the injury of all-rounder Shane Watson who has been ruled out of IPL after suffering a mild groin injury during Australia’s one-off Twenty20 International against Pakistan in Dubai. Watson, the player of the tournament in IPL’s first edition, would have solved a lot of problems in the inconsistent Royals middle-order apart from strengthening the pace attack.

The Super Kings batting has been firing all along with retired Australian Mathew Hayden leading the charge and Suresh Raina and Dhoni himself in fine touch. In fact, Hayden (378 runs) and Raina (296) are occupying the first two places among the run-getters in this IPL season at the moment.

In the bowling department, Laxmipathy Balaji has been among the wickets (11). Muttiah Muralidharan (7) and little known Shadab Jakati (9) have also been doing wonders. Dhoni can also rely on part-timer Raina after his immaculate bowling against the Kings XI Punjab Thursday.

One area of concern for the Super Kings is fielding. Dhoni was understandably angry with the shoddy fielding of his side against the Kings XI as his players dropped easy catches of key opposition players. The team management will have to address this issue if they are to put pressure on stroke makers like Graeme Smith, Naman Ojha, Yusuf Pathan and Ravindra Jadeja. The Royals’ batting can fire anytime with Smith close to his best form after scoring 77 against the Kings XI Punjab in Durban.

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Statistical highlights of the T20 Indian Premier League match between Rajasthan Royals vs Bangalore Royal Challengers on Thursday.

• Rajasthan Royals, with five wins have now got eleven points in 9 games. Their tally is the best by any team in the 2009 edition.
• Royal Challengers Bangalore (105) have registered their lowest total against Rajasthan, obliterating the 132 for nine at Jaipur on May 17, 2008.
• Royal Challengers Bangalore became the second team to lose 5 games or more. Kolkata Knight Riders (7) have lost most games in the second edition.
• Naman Ojha has recorded his second half-century in three IPL games in 2009.
• Ojha has averaged 60.00 in the 2009 edition – 120 in three innings. In Twenty20 cricket, he has averaged 28.00 in seven matches, aggregating 168 runs in seven games.
• In the 2009 edition, Graeme Smith could not get going, aggregating 162 in eight games at an average of 23.14.
• Playing in his 50th Twenty20 game, Smith took his runs tally to 1528 at an average of 34.72, including one century and nine fifties.
• Smith, during the course of his 20, became the eighth batsman to aggregate 600 runs in the IPL – 603 at an average of 37.68, including four fifties in 19 matches.
• Amit Singh (4/19) has recorded his career-best haul in Twenty20, bettering the 3 for 9 on his debut against Kings XI Punjab at Durban on May 5, 2009.
• Amit has now claimed seven wickets at an average of 4.00 with a economy rate of 3.50 in just two Twenty20 games.
• Amit, thanks to his brilliant bowling performance, has got his first Man of the Match in the IPL.
• Ravindra Jadeja (3/15) has produced his best bowling performance in the IPL, surpassing the 1-22 against Deccan Chargers at Port Elizabeth on May 2, 2009.

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