Rajasthan does it again!

Rajasthan under the excellent coaching by Shane Warne have done it again. Yes, they have won again! This time they outclassed the beleaguered team of Bangalore. They registered an emphatic, 65-run victory on Saturday. With this victory Rajasthan has secured its place in semi finals. Along with the berth in semifinals Rajasthan is sitting comfortably at the top of the League table with 16 points.

This was Warne & Co.’s sixth straight victory. Invited to bat, Rajasthan batted well and made a good challenging 197 runs. Whole Bangalore team was later buried under this score!

Smith was awesome again with his willow as he made 75 not out in just 49 balls! That innings by the storming batsman led the team to the victory! Asnodkar also batted well with a lot of hits. He was gone at 50 off kumble when Misbah took a good catch. But by this time a good score had gathered in Rajasthan’s cache.

Watson came on crease to consolidate his team. He was 48 not out. The Bangalore bowlers failed miserably in getting more wickets and in restricting the aggressive batting by both the strikers. This way the unachievable target of 198 was put in front of Dravid’s team.

When Bangalore came for batting it was no change from their last performances! The team was visibly under pressure and failed to perform again. The opener J.Arun Kumar was out at duck on ball by Tanvir. Kohli became the second victim of Pakistani bowler when he was at just 3 runs.

Soon Misbah went back to the pavilion at duck. The last hope was Kallis, who again failed under pressure as he was out at 20 runs on an excellent delivery by Trivedi. Yusuf Pathan took this crucial catch. Then was the turn of White to go back when Trivedi took his catch off Munaf at mere 10 runs.

Captain Dravid put in great effort with his bat as he was 75 not out but his effort could not take his team to the victory. He did not get any good partnership from his teammates. Other players failed miserably with their poor scores.

Patil went back when Jadeja took his catch off Warne at 9 runs. Praveen Kumar’s catch was taken by Kaif off Warne at 0. Zaheer Khan also could not perform better as he was out at 1 on a ball and catch by Warne. Kumble was out at a ball by Tanvir at 8.
Razzak was not out at 0. Only Rahul Dravid demonstrated great character and played lovely shots to finish on an unbeaten 75 with 6 fours and 6 sixes. But this great effort was not enough to beat the Rajasthan team already in high spirits!