Match Review of Rajasthan Royals vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore

Indian Premier League
Date 11th May 2011
TeamsRajasthan Royals vs. Royal Challengers Bangalore
Match no. 55
VenueSawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur
UmpiresKumar Dharamsena & K Hariharan Third Umpire: R Subramanian
TossRoyal Challengers

Playing XI

Royal Challengers Bangalore Chris Gayle T. Dilshan Virat Kohli © AB de Villiars Mohd. Kaif K Karthik S.S. Tiwary Abrar Kazi Zaheer Khan S Arvind C Langeveldt

Rajasthan Royals Shane Warne © Shane Watson Rahul Dravid Johan Botha Ross Taylor A. Rahane S.K. Trivedi Stuart Binny D. Yagnik N.D. Doshi Ashok Maneria

IPL Match No. 55 was a play off clash between Rajasthan Royals and Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium, Jaipur.

Royal's having lost their last two matches and positioned at No. 5, were under pressure to win this match. This was the last league of season 4 being played at their home ground. The Challengers on the other hand, have registered 5 back to back victories and the team looked very confident. Chris Gyale has been instrumental in all the Challengers victories. With tournament approaching the play offs stage very quickly, this match could turn out to be the deciding match between the two teams.

The pitch at Jaipur looked green and good to bat on. The team batting first should look at posting a total of 170 to make the contest interesting. Vettori, the Challengers captain, was not playing due to injury, Virat Kohli lead the team, becoming the youngest IPL Captain.

Put into bat the Royals has a great start with openers Shane Watson and Rahul Dravid putting up a 73 runs partnership for the 1st wicket. They both were targeting the pacer Sreenath and hit some elegant drives and couple of huge sixes. Soon Sreenath bounced back and removed both the openers. Watson and Dravid scored 34 & 37 runs respectively. When they both got out the Royals were 73/1 in the 10th over.

The Royal's innings never picked up thereafter. Rahane and Botha the new batsmen at the crease were finding it tough to maintain the run-rate provided by the openers. When it looked that these two batsmen may produce a good partnership, Rahane was run out brilliantly by the keeper de Villiers.

Sreenath, who initially got some good hitting, came back once again and removed the dangerous Botha for a individual score of 19. The Royal's at this stage were 4 wickets down for 122 in the 17th over. Ross Taylor, a 20-20 specialist who has not performed to his potential was expected to hit the ball hard in the death overs to help his team post a challenging total. He failed once again to deliver and was brilliantly caught by Kaif, who has the safest hands, at the long on boundary.

As the Royal's were finding it tough to score, Kohli also tried his hand with the bowl and bowled 3 overs conceding just 17 runs. Gyale, bowled the penultimate over and was very economical and also took the wicket of Menaria. None of the middle order batmen were allowed to settle by the Challenger's bowling attack, and the run rate kept dipping. All they could manage in their quota of 20 overs was a very modest total of 146 runs.

Since the time Gyale has joined the challengers no total looks defendable. He once again took charge and opened the innings with Dilshan who was playing the last match of this season. Without taking too much time, the West Indian left hander started hammering Royal's opening bowling attack. Though Gyale was the center of attraction for his superb form, Dilshan also participated equally in destroying the bowling attack.

None of the Royal's bowlers were spared by these two openers who were punishing the bowl with ease. The two were not just hitting boundaries but also were very quick between the wickets as well. Boundaries kept coming thick and fast taking the Challengers reach their 50 in the 5th over itself. Shane Warne did the blunder of dropping the dangerous Chris Gyale off Botha early on when he was at 14.

Warne gave the crowd some reason to cheer when he took Dilshan's wicket after scoring a quick 38 of just 24 balls. The Challengers at this stage were 68 in the 7th over. Virat Kohli came to the crease and played some confident shots. The two finished off the chase in the 17th over itself, giving their team a comprehensive 9 wickets victory. Gyale remained unbeatable at 70 of 44 balls hitting six 4's and four 6's.

The highlight of Gyale's innings is that he goes out and starts hitting the ball with ease, taking the pressure completely off the batsman at the other end. He goes out and plays a big inning and lays the foundation for his team's victory. Though he has played only six matches this season, but is approaching to claim the orange cap very quickly. On the leading run scorers tally, he is on the 2nd position just behind Virender Sehwag who has played 11 matches so far.

After this win, the Challengers swiftly moved to the 2nd position while the home side remained at No. 5.

Result: Royal Challengers won by 9 wickets

The Awards

Man of the match
Arvind Sreenath for his excellent spell claiming 4 wickets

Maximum Sixes
Chris Gyale for hitting 4 huge sixes

Kingfisher Fair Play Award
Chennai Super Kings top the chart

Orange Cap (The leading run scorer)
Virender Sehwag- Delhi Daredevils.

Purple Cap (The leading wicket taker)
Lasith Mallinga- Mumbai Indians5/16/2011



Last Updated on 16 May 2011