CRICKET / Bangalore Royal Challengers fail to sparkle at home, crash to second defeat in three games
Watson scripts Rajasthan's win
By G Unnikrishnan, DH News Service, Bangalore:
It was a night of deception. First, Ross Taylor promised a batting explosion and a Bangalore Royal Challengers' charge. But it never materialised.
Then the home side plucked two early Rajasthan Royals wickets to trigger hopes of defending a meagre 135. It too never became a reality, as the visitors scaled down the target with ease, reaching 138 for three in 17.1 overs for a seven-wicket victory. The near-capacity crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium too might have felt deceived as their side folded up without fight, suffering their second defeat in three matches in the Indian Premier League.
The chief architect of Royals' win was Shane Watson. The Australian all-rounder took two wickets and then blitzed his way to an unbeaten 61 to emerge the man of the match.
Watson struggled early on against the pace bowlers, but once Challengers' skipper Rahul Dravid introduced Anil Kumble from the pavilion end, he showed his true colours. The burly Australian smashed the leggie for two fours to gain rhythm. He later killed the contest, hammering Praveen Kumar for 26 runs in his third over. It was elementary stuff from Watson as he played perfect cricketing shots to bring up his second fifty of the tournament.
Watson's third-wicket association with Graeme Smith worth 104 runs (76 balls) sealed the match. Smith too was in good touch, though he missed fifty by just one run, lofting Sunil Joshi to Kumble at long-on.
The Bangalore batsmen opted to walk down the road to perdition after they were asked to bat first. The trend was set by none other than Dravid himself in the first over. The former Indian captain essayed a pull shot off Watson, but was never in control of it and Ravindra Jadeja held onto a simple catch at long leg. West Indian Shivnarine Chanderpaul too perished soon, giving another simple offering to Jadeja off Watson to push the local side to 16 for two.
Even after that dual blow, the Bangalore team might have envisaged a far better total when Taylor stuck into Royals bowling with exceptional stroke play. It seemed that the New Zealand batsman would create another epic. Taylor started his cameo, smashing Sohail Tanvir for two sixes and he never for once took his foot off the pedal. At that stage, it appeared that the crowd would be treated to another batting explosion after Brendon McCullum's exploits over a week ago. His third wicket alliance with Jacques Kallis was the best phase of Challengers' innings, the duo milking 43 runs off just 25 balls. But the hopes of the fans were soon snuffed out when Taylor found Smith at the boundary off Munaf Patel. That was the breakthrough the visitors were looking for and subsequently they tightened the noose around Bangalore with some intelligent bowling.
Royals’ skipper Shane Warne kept himself away from the attack until the 12th over. The move was justified as the pace bowlers did good work, exploiting the conditions well and bowling with spirit despite Taylor's scathing attack.
The master leg-spinner started with a wicket maiden, with Boucher being his victim. The Bangalore middle and lower order batsmen resembled hares running away from the hunters as indicated by Warne’s first spell of 2-1-2-1. The only time the home side had the measure of the Victorian was when Praveen carted him for two successive sixes. But those blows were not enough to take the Challengers to a challenging total.
Earlier, the Bangalore team sprang a surprise by including Kumble in the playing eleven. Dravid had said that the veteran leg-spinner was under recovery process from a right groin niggle that he had suffered during the first Test against South Africa in Chennai last month.
The local outfit decided to add the experience of the Test skipper on match day, but the decision did not pay off as the Bangalore batsmen had already written the script of the match.
ROYAL CHALLENGERS: Chanderpaul c Jadeja b Watson 2 (9b); Dravid c Jadeja b Watson 0 (1b); Taylor c Smith b Munaf 44 (20b, 6x4, 3x6); Kallis c Munaf b Trivedi 11 (10b, 2x4); Kohli c Rawat b Munaf 13 (14b, 1x6); Boucher c Rawat b Warne 4 (10b); Praveen (run out) 34 (30b, 2x4, 3x6); Joshi (run out) 3 (8b); Zaheer (not out) 17 (18b, 2x4); Vinay (not out) 1 (1b); Extras (LB-2, W-3, NB-1) 6; Total (for eight wickets in 20 overs) 135.
Fall of Wickets: 1-1 (Dravid), 2-16 (Chanderpaul), 3-59 (Kallis), 4-65 (Taylor), 5-77 (Kohli), 6-78 (Boucher), 7-90 (Joshi), 8-131 (Praveen).
Scoring Pattern: 5 overs: 42/2, 10: 77/2, 15: 95/7, End of Innings: 135/8 in 20 overs.
RAJASTHAN ROYALS: Smith c Kumble b Joshi 49 (42b, 8x4); Rawat c Boucher b Praveen 0 (2b); Pathan c Boucher b Zaheer 21 (12b, 5x4); Watson (not out) 61 (41b, 8x4, 2x6); Kaif (not out) 4 (6b, 1x4); Extras (LB-1, W-2) 3; Total (for three wickets in 17.1 overs) 138.
Fall of wickets: 1-1 (Rawat), 2-26 (Pathan), 3-130 (Smith).
RRs played better cricket like one unit and won the game.Even mumbai, punjab H'bad team did worst than RCs.
Media and cric experts always biased and easy to criticse players like dravid , laxman kumble bcuz they are less flameboyunat and do not open mouth in front of media. Look how agressive players like harbajn Sresant bringing disgrace to ind cricket. maccallum played a jem of innings but ind media made ganguly A Knight to Prince.....Other Superstar not playing but make sure he is in news
